When Melissa Miller, a veterinarian at the Department of Fish and Game in Santa Cruz, wrote an International Journal of Parasitology paper describing how a cat parasite that causes brain lesions was reaching Central California’s sea otters in 2002, she also put out a press release. Reporters were intrigued. After all, how could Toxoplasma gondii, which usually infects cats, be killing animals at sea?
A journalist heard a possible explanation from a scientist at a nearby aquarium: kitty litter could pass on the parasite to sea otters through sewage emptying into the ocean. Miller was doing a sea otter autopsy and couldn’t be reached for comment. The reporter, on deadline, ran with the story.
What's Killing the Pygmy Rabbit?
Soon, everyone from Reuters to the BBC was covering the link. The story had so much traction that in 2006, the California state ...
