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Amazing Cats: As Solitary Night Hunters Surrounded By Danger, Leopards Must Watch Their Backs

Stealthy, lethal and skilled, leopards are apex predators, but they contend with bigger cats and pack animals who pose a danger to them and their cubs.

Taxonomic name: Panthera pardus
Genus: Panthera (big cats)
Weight: Between 82 and 198 pounds with typical felid sexual dimorphism
Lifespan: Between 12 and 15 years in the wild and up to 23 years in captivity
Gestation: 90 to 105 days, or about three months
Litter size: Two to four cubs who remain with their mothers for up to two years
Distribution: Leopards boast the widest range of any big cat, with populations in at least 62 countries spanning from sub-Saharan Africa to Russia, China and the Koreas
IUCN Red List Status: Vulnerable

Illustration of a leopard's face with distinct spots and striking green eyes, enclosed in a circular border.

Leopards occupy a precarious position in the hierarchy of predators.

They’re true big cats who are extraordinarily dangerous and skilled hunters, but they’re never the baddest on the block by measures of pure size or strength.

Throughout their range, which stretches from the savannas of Africa to the verdant jungles of Asia, they are forced to compete with animals who exceed them in raw physical power, or derive their advantage through strength in numbers.

In Africa leopards, known as panthera pardus in binominal nomenclature, play second fiddle to their sturdier, more intimidating cousins, panthera leo. Lions aren’t just bulkier and brawnier, they’re also unique among big cats because they live in social groups. Lions cooperate on hunts, allowing them to take down anything they come across, and the entire animal kingdom gives them a wide berth.

In Asia leopards bow to the biggest, baddest cats on the planet, panthera tigris. While lots of people mistakenly believe lions are the kings of the cat world, that distinction goes to their striped, stealthy cousins. Tigers are the heaviest, physically largest and most powerful cats, making them the apex predators on land.

A leopard resting on a tree branch, looking alert with its head turned slightly. — A leopard in the Maasai Mara in Kenya. Credit: Sumeet Moghe/Wikimedia Commons

It’s not just other cats who put pressure on leopards. Hyenas, wild dog packs, dangerous herd animals and colossal animals like elephants and rhinos pose a danger to the spotted big felids, if not directly then in competition for food and territory.

So for leopards to successfully thrive, they’re forced to rely on their other unique skill sets, including impressive adaptability and intelligence. They hunt when others rest, eat in places out of reach of their competitors, and know when to cut their losses.

While tigers hunt in daylight, leopards stalk their prey in the darkness. Tigers and lions have the luxury of eating out in the open, as wild dogs know it would be suicidal to lay claim to kills belonging to a pride or a tiger pushing 700 pounds. Leopards aren’t guaranteed that luxury.

Leopards aren’t just physically vulnerable to species they share a range with, they’re also at risk of going hungry. Leopards can expend their finite energy on successful hunts only to be forced to abandon their kills to lion prides and canine packs. They can mitigate the risk by dragging their kills up into trees using their powerful limbs and sure footedness, or taking them into the tangle of the underbrush, though neither method is fool-proof.

Perhaps that’s one reason why, despite being the smallest and lightest of the big cats, leopards have a reputation for being particularly ferocious.

The Champawat tigress, also known as the Demon of Champawat, is history’s most notorious man-eater, but the lesser-known Panar Leopard was equally deadly, with more than 400 confirmed kills. The Leopard of Rudraprayag, contemporary with both, had a shorter reign of terror but took 125 human lives.

All three were killed by the legendary hunter Jim Corbett, whose name was synonymous with taking out man-eaters for decades before he became a big cat conservationist later in life. In his book Man-Eaters of Kumaon, Corbett described leopards as the trickiest big cats to track, and hunting them — as opposed to the canned kills favored by modern “sportsmen” — presents significant physical danger and risk of death even to experienced hunters.

Considering the level of self-awareness, understanding and deceptiveness displayed by animals like the Champawat tigress, who changed her tactics several times as Corbett tried to close in on her and nearly killed him by setting up a clever ambush, for Corbett to attribute even greater wiles to leopards speaks to their extraordinary ability to adapt on the fly and anticipate what their enemy might do.

When it comes to hunting man, there are two things that distinguish leopards from their tiger and lion counterparts. (And if you’re wondering where jaguars fall on the list, they don’t. There are no recorded cases of prolific man-eating jaguars, a fact often attributed to the animals’ tightly controlled abilities and reputation for calmly assessing situations. Jaguars very rarely kill humans, and when they do it’s because people have threatened them or their cubs, leaving them no chance to withdraw safely.)

A leopard lounging on a rock surrounded by grass and trees in a natural habitat. — Credit: Wikimedia Commons

As disruptive as man-eating tigers are, people living in areas stalked by them can find refuge indoors. Tigers hunt by day and won’t enter human-built structures, but leopards have no such limitations.

Both the Panar and Rudraprayag leopards, as well as other man-eaters of their species, were known to barrel through doors or leap through windows at all hours to catch sleeping humans unaware and drag them screaming into the night. It’s pure nightmare fuel and has a profound psychological effect. When man-eating leopards terrorize an area, there’s no true sanctuary.

While lions and tigers become man-eaters due to injuries — broken teeth most commonly — and old age, leopards do so because of opportunity and convenience.

For example, the man-eating leopards who terrorized India in the late 1910s and early 1920s acquired a taste for human flesh because the Spanish flu ripped through regions where they range. Survivors were hesitant to handle their bodies to bury them, and leopards found easy meals. From there, experts believe the big cats realized hunting humans is often easier than hunting agile ungulates and other typical prey — at least in the short term, before humans organize and retaliate.

Leopards are often confused with at least two other cat species, jaguars and pumas. It may be somewhat difficult to tell leopards and jaguars apart in a zoo without the benefit of signage, but in the wild they don’t co-exist. Anyone who encounters a spotted cat in the wild in Africa or Asia is looking at a leopard, while jaguars are native to the Americas, ranging across most of South America and the southern US.

Otherwise, there are visual differences. Jaguars are bulkier and more muscular, with shorter limbs, and their rosettes or “spots” have small flecks inside them. Leopards have longer limbs and may have broken rosettes, but generally do not have the small flecks and dots within their rosettes.

A leopard gracefully perched on a thick branch of a tree, surrounded by lush green leaves and a natural forest backdrop. — Credit: David Raju/Wikimedia Commons

As for pumas, they look nothing like panthera pardus or panthera onca (jaguars), and they are not true big cats, lacking the ability to roar and boasting a different lineage. But because pumas, jaguars and leopards are all colloquially called “panthers,” some people confuse them.

Both leopards and jaguars have melanistic (black) variants, but their coats are not entirely black. Under the right lighting conditions their rosettes are visible, making it possible to differentiate them visually. There are legends of melanistic pumas, but no one’s been able to verify them.

As opportunistic hunters, a leopard’s lunch or dinner is whatever it can reasonably catch, and along with pumas they’re generalists and will eat just about anything despite their individual preferences.

They’re masterfully stealthy and can ambush prey in a multitude of ways, including from above thanks to their excellent climbing abilities. Leopards are exceptionally strong despite their relatively small size compared to other big cats, and they’re able to drag carcasses larger and heavier than themselves up trees. They can descend from trees head-first, giving them an enormous advantage when attacking from elevation.

A young leopard cub standing on the sandy ground surrounded by green grass, looking curiously at the camera. — A leopard cub. Credit: Chris Eason/Wikimedia Commons

Sadly, leopards numbers are in decline across the world. Habitat fragmentation plays a major part, as does poaching to feed the insatiable Chinese traditional “medicine” market for big cat parts, which are used in tonics and folk recipes. They’re also hunted by nomadic tribes in Africa for their skins.

Then there’s the cruelty of nature itself. As adaptable and successful as adult leopards are, getting to that point involves trial and error, lots of learning and luck. By some estimates fewer than half of leopard cubs reach adulthood, with the others succumbing to other predators, poachers and illegal wildlife traders who sell the cubs to people who buy them as status symbol pets.

For more information about conservation efforts, visit the WildCat Conservation Alliance and Panthera, two of the largest global organizations dedicated to preserving leopards and other wild cat species.

Previously:

Amazing Cats: Dwilling In Dense Jungles, Margays Are Tricksters And Champion Climbers

Amazing Cats: The Mysterious Marbled Cat

Amazing Cats: The Rusty-Spotted Cat

Amazing Cats: The Jaguar, ‘He Who Kills With One Bound’

Amazing Cats: The Puma

Amazing Cats: The Sunda Clouded Leopard

Amazing Cats: The Adorable Colocolo, Feline of the Pampas

Amazing Cats: The ‘Fire Tiger’ Is The Stuff Of Legend

Amazing Cats: Ocelots Love Trees, Water And Calvin Klein’s Obsession For Men

Amazing Cats: Pallas Cats Are The Grumpy Little Hobbits Of The Feline World

Amazing Cats: The Jaguarundi Is Adept, Adaptable And Mysterious

What’s With These Judgmental Pet Services?

The groomer has “a zero-tolerance policy for repeated matting,” as if people choose to have their cats age and struggle to groom difficult-to-reach places. If a cat has previously had a matting problem, the groomer can charge a “double” matting fee or refuse service.

Bud’s got a spot of matted fur again, so I’ve been looking at local groomers.

It’s in the same place it was last time, a few inches up from his tail in a spot he can’t seem to groom as well as he used to. Part of that’s because he’s pushing 13 years old, and I’m sure part of it’s because he’s slightly overweight.

There’s a cat-only groomer not far from me, which seemed like a good option until I read the details on the groomer’s site.

They don’t offer stand-alone mat removal and insist it can only happen after a “spa treatment,” as if it’s based on a finely tuned scientific approach and Bud’s gonna sit there calmly and enjoy being fussed over.

Fine. Whatever. They want to up-sell a service and I want to take care of my cat.

But wait! There’s an extra fee for cats above a certain weight. Bud’s comfortably below it, but there’s also an extra special fee for “difficult” cats, and he’ll definitely incur that one. If I don’t drop him off exactly on time or collect him immediately, there’s another unspecified “small fee.” Appointments must be canceled a week ahead of time or there’s another fee.

Then I read this:

“Matting is 100 percent preventable and [grooming business name] has a zero-tolerance policy for repeated matting.

Repeated matting will result in doubled-matting fees or denial of service.”

Seriously? Anyone who knows me will attest to the fact that I don’t just like my cat, I love him.

I’d do anything for him. The point is, I take care of the little dude. He is emphatically not neglected, and I’ve tried other things like regular brushing and the Furminator. He hates it, and I don’t blame him. It can’t be comfortable having metal teeth tugging at your hair, no matter how gently pressure is applied. Like all cats, he’s subject to the physical reality of aging, and he’s not a fan of being handled, so I do what I can within reason and within his tolerance.

That’s why I was able to keep the mat from returning for almost two years, and it’s why I am seeking the help of ostensible professionals. Of course he’s a pain in the Bud about being handled and clippers/shavers. I wouldn’t consult a professional if it were easy.

A gray cat sleeping comfortably on a plaid blanket. — Napping after a demanding day of eating and lounging.

I want to get his matted fur completely removed with minimal fuss, without judgment and without the possibility of half a dozen additional fees arbitrarily tacked on until I’m paying $350 to get rid of a mat.

Update: After he woke up from a nap and was extremely relaxed, I got in there calmly and quickly and cut the matted fur off myself, then trimmed until he started to get annoyed. I can always go back and get what’s left of it later when he’s chilled out again, and I’ll try some dry shampoo to hopefully get rid of any oils that may have built up and could cause matting again. I have no doubt this will be an ongoing problem since his tolerance for gentle brushing is about 20 seconds, but at least I took care of 95% of the problem relatively easily and, most importantly, he seems very happy not having the matted fur on his back.

The lesson here? Don’t prejudge your potential customers and write website copy as if you’re a custody court who’s going to reprimand me for allegedly being a bad caretaker before you meet me and understand what the situation is.

I get that groomers probably see some people who genuinely neglect their pets, but a key part of honest human communication is to avoid judging people and avoid allowing past experiences color your approach. It could cost you customers, as it did with this groomer.

For The First Time, Americans Are Adopting More Kittens Than Puppies

Americans live differently than they did even a decade ago, and those lifestyle changes have changed what they look for in companion animals.

About a decade ago, Americans were adopting almost twice as many puppies as they were kittens, continuing a long tradition of dogs wearing the favored pet crown in the US.

Now households have only .94 puppies for every kitten, according to researched firm Packaged Facts, and it’s not because people are adopting more cats. Instead, people are adopting fewer puppies and dogs.

The reasons are complex but boil down to larger trends in our society. People have less disposable income, live in smaller homes, and travel more. Dogs have to be kenneled or brought along on trips, which presents additional logistical challenges, while cats are rarely taken on short trips and vacations. As highly territorial animals who thrive on stability, cats do better staying at home where things are just how they like them, with familiar sights, sounds and smells.

Yet despite the significant shift in the adoption ratio, the pet products market hasn’t adjusted, Packaged Facts CEO Robert Granader writes in the Washington Post. Most services, including grooming and boarding, are aimed at dogs, as are special retail items, accommodations and conveniences.

“There are dog parks, dog beaches, dog-friendly hotels, dog-friendly restaurants, dog bakeries and even dog airlines,” Grenader writes. “Cats are largely left out. They get leftover boxes from Amazon deliveries.”

A gray cat's head peeking out from a cardboard box with the text 'Share your #ChewyDelivery with us @chewy' printed on it. — “We get the boxes. I like boxes!”

Noting that homeowners are twice as likely to adopt dogs than renters, Granader points to decline home ownership, higher mortgages and stagnant wages as additional contributors to the dog adoption slowdown.

Of course that also means dogs will have fewer opportunities to find homes, and will lead to a ripple effect on shelters and euthanasia rates. Unless economic and societal changes revert, the trend is likely to hold.

“This isn’t a story about cats replacing dogs,” Granader wrote. “It’s about Americans becoming more like cats: living in smaller spaces, valuing independence and preferring to be left alone.”

Of course the story includes common misconceptions about cats. Grenader claims cats are “quieter” and find it “easier to live by themselves.”

“A cat barely notices you’ve left the house,” he writes.

Granader may not have much experience with cats, as those of us whose feline overlords wait by the door for us to return and vocalize regularly can attest the species is not necessarily quieter or less attached. They may pretend they are unbothered by our absence, but that’s feline stoicism and weirdness, not a reflection of reality. The idea that domestic cats prefer solitude is also an old myth.

As for the impact on products, services and choices, the market will go where the money is, and it’ll take a few years for the effects of declining dog adoptions to fully realize in consumer spaces. In other words, don’t expect your local pet shop to switch an extra aisle over to cat gear next time you pop in.

Lastly, we would not rule out the possibility that this is all the result of some feline scheme whose foundations were laid years ago. Cats are remarkably lazy but equally innovative when properly motivated, and they’ve always been sure they should possess the crown.

The photo of Buddy in his new box was taken on Saturday. Looking pretty good for a little dude pushing 13, eh?

Header image credit: Pexels

With Its Sixth Season, Slow Horses Remains One Of The Best Things To Happen To Television

Unlike anything else on TV, Slow Horses expertly blends action, intrigue and wit for an unrelenting spy thriller.

Someone’s coming for the Slow Horses, and our heroes don’t have plot armor.

In our first review of Apple TV’s smash spy hit Slow Horses more than two and a half years ago, we called it the best thriller on TV and praised Gary Oldman’s turn as the surly codger Jackson Lamb, who captains an office of MI5’s worst screw-ups and delights in tormenting them.

Now in its sixth season, the espionage drama has never been better.

The show’s writers have perfected the art of cranking up tension while knowing when to cut it with dry humor, whether it’s Lamb’s biting sarcasm, agent River Cartwright’s annoying earnestness or the delusional confidence of Roddy Ho, the Slow Horses’ tech specialist who believes women are lining up to get a crack at him.

The last two seasons have seen the Horses dismantle a terror ring, get pulled into the ugliness of national politics, and face down an extraordinary manipulator with a serious grudge against the British.

Two business professionals with earpieces standing with arms crossed, looking serious in a corporate setting. — James Callis and Kristen Scott Thomas play MI5’s bosses in the UK spy thriller. Credit: Apple TV

The sixth season is the deadliest yet, with an unidentified foe from the past systematically assassinating anyone who’s ever worked at Slough House, the Horses’ dilapidated, grubby headquarters.

They lock one former Horse in a shipping container full of accelerant and burn him alive, drown another in London’s canals, and stage the death of a third with a lethal gas before Lamb and his “losers” (his words) realize they’ve got targets on their backs. And that’s just the very beginning of the season.

All three assassinations are meant to look like accidents, but Lamb tells the Horses to go to ground. The show’s spies have occasionally reminded the audience there are two sets of rules: under Moscow rules, watch your back. Under London rules, cover your arse.

Lamb fears he and his agents are the sacrifice in a panicked MI5 attempt at arse-covering, meaning Moscow and London rules are now in play. The Slow Horses will get no help from “the park,” MI5’s headquarters, nor from any of its brass, who are likely in on the plot to stab Lamb and his spies in the back.

A man standing in a field of tall grass under a partly cloudy sky, wearing a light-colored coat and a striped shirt with a tie. — Oldman’s Jackson Lamb, whose rumpled, hygienically challenged appearance masks the sharp mind of a Cold War veteran spy always several steps ahead of everyone else. Credit: Apple TV

No fat or filler

At a time when it’s unfortunately common for TV shows to take two or even three-year breaks between seasons (with Netfix taking more than five years between installments of one of its most popular shows), Slow Horses releases a new season like clockwork every 11 or 12 months.

The showrunners accomplish this in part because they’re constantly writing, even while filming, and because with six hour-long episodes per season, there is no filler. Things move fast, plots ramp up quickly, and we learn about the characters not through leisurely exposition but in the most natural way, by seeing how they react and pull together when things are at their worst.

Oldman’s Lamb is the role of a lifetime and the veteran actor is at his best here, only occasionally letting his vulgar, derisive mask slip to show paternalistic care for the agents under his wing. Not all of them are the screw-ups they’re portrayed as, and some are actually excellent spies who have been railroaded or sidelined due to character issues.

Five individuals gathered in a room, focusing on a smartphone screen. Two women are examining the phone closely, while a man stands nearby. The setting is cluttered, with various drinks and food items on a table. — Shirley, center, shows the other Slow Horses video proof that an assassination squad is after one of their own. Credit: Apple TV

Cartwright (Jack Lowden), the most prominent of them, unknowingly did too good of a job when tailing MI5’s second-in-command during a training exercise and caught her debriefing an off-the-books agent who was tasked with burying one of the agency’s worst screw-ups. His reward was being set up to fail in a major training exercise and a subsequent exile to Slough House.

Shirley (Aimee-Ffion Edwards) is almost as abrasive as Lamb and has a drug problem, but is also an extremely capable agent, a crack shot and, in the words of Lamb, “a brave little hobbit” who routinely charges into the most dangerous situations despite her tiny 5’1″ frame. She’s also the first to realize a plot against MI5 in one season and is repeatedly dismissed as paranoid and crazy before reality forces the brass to acknowledge they have a serious problem on their hands.

A woman with wet hair staring intently at the camera while wearing a light-colored sweater with black stripes. The background features blurred office elements and holiday decorations. — A “brave little hobbit”: Aimee-Ffion Edwards plays the Welsh spy Shirley Dander. Credit: AppleTV

Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves) is routinely overlooked because of her past as an alcoholic, but proves to be a quick thinker and uses her useless reputation as camouflage to devastating effect, while the mysterious Coe (Tom Brooke) is understated and hides a sharp mind.

Then there’s Roddy Ho, who lives in a universe of his own creation, one where he’s absolute catnip to women, a hacker of worldwide repute and a legend in the spy world. Ho incessantly invents flattering nicknames for himself — the Rodzilla, the HoDron Collider, the Hot Rod, the Ramrod, “Roddy by name, Ho by nature” — bragging to one MI5 bigwig that he has “many nom de guerre.”

“I am mythical, historical and futuristical!” he says in one scene, flexing his biceps and bragging that he’s been called a dragonslayer and the True King of Gondor.

A man flexing his arm muscles while wearing a black t-shirt, set in a dimly lit room with industrial elements. — Roddy Ho, the Slow Horses’ tech specialist, lives in a universe of his own creation. Credit: Apple TV

In a lesser actor’s hands, the performance would be over the top to the point of pulling viewers out of the narrative, but Christopher Chung imbues Ho with off-the-scale confidence so he comes off as a man-child who’s been telling himself legends of his own invention for so long that he can’t distinguish between reality and fantasy.

It makes for rich comedic material even in the most tense situations. Ho can go from cowering in a bathroom while yelling “I don’t want to die!” to bragging about his martial prowess in the blink of an eye, and somehow it works.

Both the show’s humor and spy narratives are top notch, and we get plenty of action worthy of Hollywood blockbusters, with spectacular set pieces, brutal fights and explosions enough to satisfy even Michael Bay.

American audiences haven’t fully caught on, and I expect that’s because we generally don’t do the kind of ultra-dry humor that is a trademark of the UK’s best productions. But I’d advise anyone to give it a shot. This isn’t a show you watch with one eye on your smartphone. It demands your full attention, and it rewards you in equal measure.

Slow Horses is currently airing its sixth season on Apple TV, with a seventh already filmed and slated for release next year.

Header image of River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) credit: Apple TV

Cat Food Loaded With Carcinogens, Heavy Metals, Microplastics And Herbicides, Investigation Finds

“Lead was found in 99%, cadmium in 96% and arsenic in 94% of cat food samples across 62 brands,” the Clean Label Project said.

A new investigation found cat food is packed with pollutants and toxins that are lethal to our furry little friends.

Almost no brand was left untouched in the investigation by the Clean Label Project.

“The investigation tested 100 top-selling cat foods for more than 122 contaminants, including lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury, pesticides, herbicides and phthalates, the plastic chemicals linked to an increased risk of death in humans,” CNN reports. “Lead was found in 99%, cadmium in 96% and arsenic in 94% of cat food samples across 62 brands. Contamination varied by product type — wet, dry, and air- or freeze-dried — and the type of protein, such as poultry, beef or fish.”

What’s especially worrying is that many of the most prominent contaminants are directly linked to the most common and lethal health problems in cats, including kidney disease and liver damage. Kidney disease affects more than four in 10 cats ages 10 and older, and four out of five cats age 15 and older, according to Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.

The numbers are seriously concerning and, although caretakers have long known pet food manufacturers cut corners, often loading their products with fillers and the lowest grade meat available, the new investigation paints a picture far worse than most of us imagined.

A gray cat licking a tube of pet treat held by a person. — The Clean Label Project cat food investigation raises serious questions about the damage pet food is doing to our beloved little buddies. Credit: by Anjie Qiu/Pexels

Compounding the problem is the fact that government regulations on contaminants, like many laws dealing with animals, were designed for farm animals. At about eight to 12 pounds, cats are significantly smaller than the animals regulators had in mind, meaning their bodies are less able to filter out toxins and they absorb significantly more than farm animals or adult humans.

Seafood is especially dangerous. Per CNN:

“Mercury levels were about 18 times higher and cadmium levels about 2.5 times higher in fish- or seafood-based cat foods than in foods made with other proteins. Wet versions of seafood products contained the most mercury — nearly 28 times as much as wet foods made with other meats, especially poultry.”

This is horror movie stuff, directly contributing to the early deaths of countless pets, grief over their short lives, and an unquantifiable amount of money spent on veterinary care for food we’re told is healthy but instead contains toxins directly linked to chronic and frequently fatal health problems.

The Pet Food Institute describe itself as “the voice of US pet food.”

Despite the major concerns raised by the Clean Label Project’s investigation and the inevitable anger of people who love their cats, the pet food industry isn’t just denying the findings, it’s sticking to its claims that manufacturers care about their customers and the animals they love.

After touting “testing protocols,” manufacturing “verification” and “science-based preventative controls,” Pet Food Institute CEO Elise Fennig told CNN the industry’s products are “safe, nutritious, and consistent.”

“Cat owners should feel confident that the food they feed their pets is safe and produced according to rigorous regulatory and quality standards,” said Fennig, whose previous roles include executive positions at the American Frozen Food Institute, the National Confectioners Association, and the Frozen Potato Products Institute, industry groups that push the narrative that ultraprocessed foods made at industrial scale are healthy staples of American diets.

So we have someone with a degree in public relations telling us that despite laboratory tests revealing horrific contaminants and toxins in cat food, we should all just relax and “feel confident” that the products are “safe” and nutritious” — not because she’s able to offer any evidence in support of those claims, but because she says so.

Well, Elise, I don’t feel confident, especially because experts CNN contacted, who are unaffiliated with the research, said it looks rigorous and well-executed.

You know what would make me feel better? If you and the top executives at pet food companies were willing to eat human-grade food with the same level of contaminants for six months or a year.

If your products are as “safe, nutritious and consistent” as you claim they are, let’s see you eat food laced with arsenic, cadmium and lead for six months, then release the results of your bloodwork and physicals. Then we’ll see, won’t we?

Otherwise it seems as if you’re shitting on us from great heights and telling us it’s raining gold.

A pet supply aisle featuring various brands of dog and cat food bags on shelves, with colorful packaging and pet toys on display. — The investigation involved laboratory testing of 100 of the top cat food brands

The apparent ubiquity of contaminants and toxins also raises the question: is any brand of commercial cat food safe? Should caretakers give up entirely on pet food and learn to prepare meals for their felines?

It will be interesting to see where this goes and if the industry can be forced to correct its course through things like consumer pressure and class action lawsuits. The vet bills are one thing, but robbing us of years with our little pals, and seriously harming their quality of life, is especially disturbing.

Expect no help from the government on this. Our “leaders” are too busy enriching themselves with insider trading, stacking the decks in favor of incumbents and riling the electorate with culture war nonsense. They can’t even be bothered to ban food dyes (relying on voluntary measures and asking manufacturers to police themselves instead) identified as primary culprits driving unprecedented rates of cancer, so there’s no reason to believe they’ll care about animals.

We’re alone in this, except hopefully for animal welfare organizations and other nonprofits dedicated to pets. That means it’s on us to apply pressure and make sure we don’t relent until we can trust the food we’re feeding our beloved buddies isn’t killing them.