A closer look
Corporate greed literally poisoned the food chain in Minamata, Japan, and the first warning sign was the local stray cats doing backflips into the ocean. A chemical plant spent decades dumping raw methylmercury into the bay, which concentrated in the fish. Long before humans developed the devastating numbness, paralysis, and permanent brain damage of Minamata disease, the feral cats ate the toxic fish and suffered catastrophic neurological meltdowns, earning the horrifying nickname "dancing cat fever."
