Aude: Cats poisoned by cannabis. Really?

200 cats were found poisoned to death in a seaside resort in Saint-Pierre-la-Mer, near Narbonne (Aude).

Several complaints have been lodged with the gendarmerie, which is leading the investigation, according to 20 minutes. Michèle Grenier-Bolley, an investigator for the SPA who has also lodged a complaint, explains that «The cats are fed at night. I was contacted in 2011 and 2012 in St-Pierre for similar problems, when I represented the Brigitte Bardot Foundation. And now it's happening again on a scale never seen before». The gendarmes also believe that these acts may have been committed by one or more of the resort's residents.

On the other hand, the mayor of Fleury, on which the seaside resort of Saint-Pierre-la-Mer depends, believes that this is “collateral damage”, as the poisoned food may have been destined for the gulls circling the seaside resort.

In short, the sordid event took place on a hectare of land where cats were found dying. An autopsy was carried out on the felines to determine the cause of the incident. According to the results, the poisoning was caused by small pellets containing lead, waste oil, rat poison and cannabis resin.

Any sensible person would then guess that the cause of the poisoning lies more in rat poison and lead than in cannabis, whose dose is lethal even to a cat, exceeds its capacity to absorb. But guess what the headlines are about?

There's plenty of room for conventional wisdom when it comes to headlines about cannabis. Click, click, click.

Mehdi Bautier