猫粮致千只猫瘫痪？伯纳天纯回应 弗列加特尚未发官方声明

This incident centers on over 1,000 reported cases of cats developing hind leg weakness and unsteady gait. Statistics from a support group for affected cats show that more than 65% of sick cats had been eating Boost & Pure long-term, and around 25% had been eating Freshness. The incident went viral on Chinese social media, drawing widespread attention across the pet industry.

1. Background of the involved brands: Both brands are positioned as high-end domestic cat food brands. During Tmall’s 2026 618 Grand Promotion, Boost & Pure ranked 11th on Tmall’s list of top pet brands by transaction volume, while Freshness entered the top 5. Freshness is a key brand owned by listed company Pawpaw Pet, and its sales grew more than 80% year-over-year in 2025.

2. Brand response updates: Boost & Pure has released an official statement, saying it has completed more than 1,200 tests on its products, all of which meet Chinese national standards and no product safety issues have been identified. It has also launched two special initiatives: publicly releasing testing data and accepting external oversight. Freshness has not issued an official statement, only responding that existing data lacks authoritative verification, that the causes of cats’ hind leg abnormalities are complex, and that it is accelerating its investigation into the matter.

3. Current conclusion: No direct causal link has been established between the products and the cats’ symptoms. The final outcome awaits regulatory investigation and further scientific research.

This incident provides multiple lessons for brand building and crisis PR for domestic pet brands, especially high-end pet food brands. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Industry trends: China’s domestic high-end pet food segment is growing strongly and has won recognition from consumers and the market, with multiple domestic brands now ranking among the top on major e-commerce sales leaderboards. The overall consumption trend favors the premiumization of domestic pet brands, but product safety and consumer trust are the core of sustainable brand growth. Any suspicion of quality issues can trigger a large-scale trust crisis.

2. Crisis response lessons: Boost & Pure’s approach — proactively addressing consumer concerns, establishing a dedicated task force to organize information, and opening testing data to external oversight — is worth emulating. Addressing trust issues head-on is far more effective at reducing negative impact than avoiding them. By contrast, Freshness’s delayed, silent response has already sparked consumer discontent, serving as a negative example to avoid.

3. Brand building reminders: Brands need to pre-establish crisis response mechanisms, improve product retention and multi-dimensional testing systems, cooperate with regulatory investigations immediately after a controversy arises, and respond to public concerns in a timely manner to prevent risks from escalating.

This incident highlights potential risks for pet food sellers while also pointing to long-term opportunities. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Short-term risk reminder: The incident has triggered consumer safety concerns about the two involved brands and even the entire domestic high-end cat food category. In the short term, we will likely see a noticeable rise in customer inquiries and negative feedback for related products, which may hurt sales. Sellers should prepare response scripts in advance, stay updated on the latest official developments, and provide clear answers to consumers.

2. Contingency preparation: China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has already launched official sampling inspections. If safety issues are confirmed, related products will face mandatory removal from shelves and other risks. Sellers should track regulatory updates proactively, prepare inventory adjustment plans and consumer communication protocols in advance to mitigate operational risks.

3. Long-term opportunity direction: This incident reflects that consumer attention to pet food safety has increased significantly. Products that emphasize safety transparency and public testing information will earn greater consumer trust. Sellers can prioritize such products in future sourcing, while continuing to monitor regulatory policy changes in the pet food industry and adjust business strategies accordingly.

This incident brings multiple insights and development directions for pet food manufacturing factories. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Changes in production-side demand: As consumers raise their requirements for pet food safety, factories need to place product safety testing at the core of operations, establish comprehensive product retention systems, and expand testing coverage to include nutrition, toxins, heavy metals, chemical residues and other indicators to meet consumer demand for safety.

2. Crisis response lessons: When facing quality controversies, factories should proactively disclose information like Boost & Pure did, open up production processes and testing data for external oversight, and respond to public concerns in a timely manner. Evasion and silence only deepen consumer suspicion, causing greater harm to both brands and manufacturers.

3. Insights for digital transformation: Factories can advance transparent production processes and build digital traceability systems, which enable faster batch verification when incidents occur and also strengthen consumer trust. Factories should also pre-establish dedicated crisis response mechanisms to activate response processes immediately when problems arise.

This incident reveals current pain points and development trends in the pet food industry, pointing out clear business directions for all types of pet industry service providers. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Industry pain points: The biggest pain point in the current pet food industry is a lack of consumer trust. Consumers are increasingly demanding transparency around product safety and testing results, and brands need professional third-party testing, crisis PR, and cause identification services to support them when facing quality controversies.

2. Business opportunity directions: Third-party testing providers can expand full-parameter testing services for pet food, and launch dispute-related sampling services for brands to meet their demand for independent credibility. Production traceability service providers can develop transparent traceability solutions specifically for pet food companies to help them boost consumer trust.

3. Demand for professional services: PR and crisis response firms can develop specialized crisis response products tailored for the pet food industry, helping brands standardize their responses during controversies and reduce negative impact. Pet medical research service providers can enter the field of veterinary epidemiological investigation to fill the current industry gap.

This incident brings multiple insights for operational management and risk mitigation for pet food e-commerce platforms. Key takeaways are as follows:

1. Operational management requirements: Platforms need to strengthen quality oversight for listed pet food products, require入驻 brands to publicly disclose product testing information in a timely manner, and build comprehensive quality feedback channels for consumers to report issues, preventing negative incidents from escalating and harming the platform’s overall reputation.

2. Crisis response management: Platforms should establish a mandatory crisis response mechanism for入驻 brands, requiring brands to release an official response within a set timeframe after a controversy emerges. Silence like Freshness’s response in this incident sparks consumer dissatisfaction and damages platform user experience, which should not be allowed.

3. Sourcing and risk mitigation: When onboarding new brands, platforms can prioritize those with complete quality control systems and high information transparency. Platforms should also share compliance guidance with入驻 brands, require them to build crisis response mechanisms and prepare risk contingency plans in advance. In addition, platforms need to promptly follow up on sampling inspection results from regulators, remove non-compliant products in a timely manner, protect consumer rights, and mitigate industry-wide trust risks.

This incident reflects new trends and emerging problems in China’s pet food industry, providing valuable reference for industrial research and policy making. Key insights are as follows:

1. New industrial trends: In recent years, domestic substitution has become a clear trend in China’s pet food industry. Domestic high-end pet food is growing rapidly, with multiple domestic brands ranking among the top in e-commerce sales leaderboards, and leading brands posting very strong growth. Freshness’s more than 80% year-over-year sales growth demonstrates that domestic high-end pet food has already won consumer recognition, and can achieve rapid growth relying on e-commerce platforms.

2. New industrial problems: Alongside the rapid growth of domestic high-end pet food, the industry’s trust system lags behind, and there is no authoritative mechanism to confirm causal links in product safety controversies. In this incident, the statistical data collected by consumers lacks professional medical and epidemiological support, and brands cannot quickly provide authoritative causal proof, which easily triggers large-scale public opinion crises that harm the entire industry’s development.

3. Implications for research and policy: For industrial research, more attention should be paid to trust building during the premiumization of domestic pet food. For policy making, authorities need to improve the investigation and confirmation mechanism for pet food safety controversies, clarify testing standards and dispute resolution procedures, standardize industry development, and protect the legitimate rights and interests of both consumers and compliant brands.