The Scotsman online newspaper peddles misinformation about cat breeds

I have to mention this as it is a genuine problem for animal welfare. The Scotsman online newspaper decided a while ago to publish articles about cat breeds without knowing a thing about them. And so, they make it all up to try and increase readership numbers. Cynical clickbait crap. Ironically the header to their website states: “News you can trust since 1817”. No, sorry. Not on the cat breeds in any case.

The Scotsman provide fake information on the cat breeds
The Scotsman provide fake information on the cat breeds. Image: MikeB.
Two useful tags. Click either to see the articles: Toxic to cats | Dangers to cats

Their articles are horribly misleading and there are lots of them. For example, online at the moment is an article about “Small Cute Cats 2022: 10 tiny breeds of cat that will look like kittens in adulthood.”

It is pure clickbait. It is entirely fictitious. There are no ’10 tiny cat breeds that will look like kittens in adulthood’. It is all bollocks.

They are cynically trying to attract readers. The link to the above fiction is contained in an article entitled: “Healthiest Cat Breeds 2022: Here 10 of the most healthy breeds of loving cat that won’t need many vet visits”.

More fiction. For example, about the Maine Coon they carelessly write: “Tough, chunky and instantly recognisable, the Maine Coon breed can occasionally have generic health conditions, although they are generally a healthy breed that can live up to 15 years.”

No mention of the list of inherited diseases association with this cat breed such as HCM which is a killer and prevalent within the breed.

They have a picture of what appears to be a silver spotted Bengal cat which they describe as a RagaMuffin (absurd) with the caption: “Here are the 10 breeds of beautiful cats that rarely get sick – including the adorable Ragamuffin cat breed. A beautiful, with a gorgeous coat. They love attention are often live for well over a decade.” As you can see it has two typos as well.

And pure mumbo jumbo. As mentioned, the cat is a Bengal not a RagaMuffin (and, yes, this spelling with the capital ‘M’ is correct, not their version). The author clearly does not have a clue about the topic. Graham Falk has just dived in without research. Truly ghastly.

Below is a screenshot.

The Scotsman's articles on cat breeds are pure mumbo jumbo
The Scotsman’s articles on cat breeds are pure mumbo jumbo. Screenshot.

These are just two examples. There are many more too boring and irritating to list. I feel that they need to be stopped asap because some potential adopters will be misled by these appalling and cynical articles.

Google should not be listing them.

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Useful tag. Click to see the articles: Cat behavior

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