# The cat drug black market

> A one-eyed kitten named Otto got a death sentence, and a Facebook group had the only cure.
- Title: The cat drug black market · Mother Jones | Shortify
- Summary: A one-eyed kitten named Otto got a death sentence, and a Facebook group had the only cure. When a cure exists but the law can't reach it, desperate owners…
- Keywords: cats, fip, black market, veterinary medicine, drug access, cat, drug, black, market, Mother Jones
- Source: Mother Jones — https://motherjones.com/politics/2026/09/eline-infectious-peritonitis-fip-black-market-cat-medication-hyperfixed
- Author: Reveal
- Published: 2026-09-12T03:01:00+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: cats, fip, black market, veterinary medicine, drug access
## A criminal moves in
In 2023, Marlena Arjo adopted a one-eyed kitten she named Otto. Over eight months he shredded books, flattened houseplants and tore the calendar off her wall.

> I wasn't prepared for having a criminal in my home
## Then he stopped eating
Within months Otto got sick and quit his food. Arjo rushed him to the vet and came home with a name for it: feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP.
## Nearly always fatal
FIP kills almost every cat that catches it. The clinic told Arjo there was nothing they could do for Otto.
## The vet's whisper
On the way out, the vet offered something the clinic could not prescribe. Not a treatment plan, a tip about where other owners were buying the drug themselves.

> I shouldn't tell you this. But by the way, you can get drugs for this if you go to this Facebook group.
## A market built by owners
Cat owners ran an international gray-market supply for a medication their vets could not legally hand over. Reveal and the Hyperfixed podcast trace how it worked and why it had to exist.
## Fighting to end it
The people running the black market also pushed to make it unnecessary, campaigning for changes that would put the drug in vets' hands legally.
## Key takeaway

When a cure exists but the law can't reach it, desperate owners build their own supply chain, and sometimes that pressure changes the rules.