Obesity is at epidemic levels worldwide. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated that by 2018 the cost of treating weight-related illnesses will double to almost $350 billion a year. A 2010 report by the U.S. Surgeon General estimates that two-thirds of American adults and almost one in three children are now overweight or obese. Similar statistics emphasize the staggering problem in other industrialized countries. This volume originated in a special 2009 symposium funded in part by a grant from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD) and sponsorship from Mars-Waltham(TM) on how human-animal interaction may help fight obesity across the lifespan. It provides systematic presentation of the scientific evidence for this powerful expression of the benefits of the human-animal bond. The volume will be especially valuable as a sourcebook of evidence-based studies for public health professionals treating overweight humans and veterinarians treating obese dogs.

Alan M. Beck received his B.A from Brooklyn College, M.A from California State University at Los Angeles and his Sc.D. in Animal Ecology from The Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. His book, The Ecology of Stray Dogs: A Study of Free-Ranging Urban Dogs is considered a classic in the field of urban ecology and was republished by Purdue University Press in 2002. Together with Dr. Aaron Katcher, he edited the book, New Perspectives on Our Lives with Companion Animals, and co-authored Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship, first published in 1983 then revised in 1996. Beck has published numerous articles on the nature of our relationship with animals and is a founding board member of the Delta Society. Beck directed the animal programs for the New York City Department of Health for five years, and then was the Director of the Center for the Interaction of Animals and Society at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Veterinary Medicine for 10 years. In 1990, he became the "Dorothy N. McAllister Professor of Animal Ecology" and Director of the Center for the Human-Animal Bond in the School of Veterinary Medicine, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.