You’ve probably heard it said that cats dangerous and toxic heavy metal, but population began to suffer alarming
have nine lives. It’s not true of course, rather than dispose of it in a safe manner symptoms too. People began to
but cats are known for their dexterity and (I’m not sure any method is
completely safe, ed) , the factory agility, and as such, seem to be able to get owners simply poured it directly into the speech and hearing, while others
out of almost any situation. bay in Minamata. simply started to shout out
Sadly, this is the story of the backward- That does not sound good.
they have one – just like everything else,
walking or ‘dancing cats’ of Minamata Bay
– a cautionary tale, not for cats, but for
No. No it wasn’t.
people. You see, the Minamata Bay
complain of numbness in their
arms and legs. Some lost their
uncontrollably.
THE INVESTIGATION
Doctors and scientists arrived in
Minamata in an attempt to discover
incident is a lesson in how humans can At first, no one noticed anything different what was happening. After a long
poison an entire food chain without even at all, and so for the following 30 years, and painstaking investigation, it was
knowing it. the company in question, the Chisso concluded that the uncontrollable
Corporation, continued to dump shouting, the backward-walking
hundreds of tonnes of deadly mercury cats and the crows falling from the
Minamata is a fishing town on the west into the clear, clean waters at Minamata. sky were all clear signs that the
coast of Kyushu island, in Japan. In 1932 a Meanwhile, the local fishermen and people and animals of Minamata,
women, who were completely oblivious with their daily diet of contaminated
to the risks, continued to fish for shellfish seafood, were suffering from severe
and clams to feed the local villagers and mercury poisoning. The mercury in
their animals. their diet had worked its way into
HAZARDOUS WASTE
STRANGER HAPPENINGS
By the 1950s the residents of Minamata
were beginning to notice some very
strange things afoot in their town. The
local cats and dogs, which fed on the fish
scraps from the docks, began to act very
weirdly indeed. Cats were seen walking
backwards. The world’s press descended
on the community, to see the strange
backward-walking or ‘dancing cats’ of
Minamata. But worse was to come.
large chemical factory opened there and Cats and dogs started to suffer from
began manufacturing prescription drugs strange convulsions and foaming at the
and industrial products, such as plastics. mouth. Crows began to crash wildly into
The company used mercury in their the rocks of the bay, others simply
production processes. Mercury is a very dropped out of the sky. Then the human
their nervous systems.