Beware of Cat-Killing Automatic Litterboxes

[detrius]

 

[Rose Karuna]

Wow, I had no idea, thank you for posting this. I have often considered automatic liter boxes but the non-auto one that's flexible with handles on the top is just so easy to carry to the toilet and empty that I haven't bothered. Now I don't think I will bother at all with them, even the ones that appear safe seem like more of a pain in the rear than I'm doing now. I just don't want to take a risk after seeing these stories. So sad.

 

[Imnotgoing Sideways]

I've always personally been anti-auto when it comes to the cat box. Typically the "cleaning" method can both scare the cat and spread odors inside which further makes the cat uncomfortable. It won't take long for "accidents" to happen. Those machines do a great job at containing odors and saving effort for the people in the family. But, litter isn't about containment and ease for humans. A cat wants peace and comfort too and it's our place to provide it.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

I feel vindicated for never getting an auto litterbox of any kind. I always worried it would be too scary for my cats, and also a nightmare to clean after it's been in use for some time.

 

[Casey Pelous]

The shelter where I got my cats uses softwood bedding pellets for litter and I've continued that. It is the best stuff! I get it at a local farm co-op. There's zero odor until the pellets have turned to sawdust from absorbing pee -- I scoop the poop daily but only have to change out the pellets about once a week. They have multiple boxes, so YMMV ... Here, we've no need of any automated contraption.

 

[Dakota Tebaldi]

Man you know, the most infuriating thing about this to me is the fact that the "company" that branded the machine offered to give her money but required her to take down the negative Amazon review - and, honestly, I have to say I have mixed feelings about her accepting this; I'm not going to declare that it was definitely the wrong thing to do, but I'm also not really totally sure it was the right one.

But that aside, this is not a that-company problem because "Amztoy" isn't a real company. It's an Amazon problem. Amazon's business model has created this whole ecosystem where a no-name manufacturer produces these things and doesn't directly sell them to customers but instead supplies them to "companies" whose only function in the pipeline is to brand them and put them up on Amazon or Alibaba or wherever else. It's invariably cheap trash meant to be sold to people who don't know any better and the entire pipeline is designed to ensure that if enough people complain about the quality or safety of a particular product the reseller can just drop its nonsensical "brand name", adopt another, and continue selling the exact same thing. "Amztoy" may have taken that specific product page down, but as you can see in the video the same thing is being sold under countless other brand names and I guarantee you that one and most likely several of them are whoever "Amztoy" was, the exact same person or people using a different name. And of course the manufacturer, the ones most directly responsible for how dangerous or faulty the product is - well that company's name never makes it onto any of the product pages; it doesn't even have an Amazon account, so it can never face any consequences even theoretically.

On top of that Amazon sucks as a company, it doesn't vet quality, it allows companies to post fake reviews and bribe customers to write good ones, and takes down bad reviews for them; it won't take down product pages even for extremely dangerous products unless something gets on the news. It's just a complete garbage site.

 

[Cristiano]

As someone who owns the Litter Robot, the headline scared me. I am relieved it was not that, but still sad this happened to anyone.

 

[detrius]

Wow, I had no idea, thank you for posting this. I have often considered automatic liter boxes but the non-auto one that's flexible with handles on the top is just so easy to carry to the toilet and empty that I haven't bothered. Now I don't think I will bother at all with them, even the ones that appear safe seem like more of a pain in the rear than I'm doing now. I just don't want to take a risk after seeing these stories. So sad.

Well, it seems to be mostly a matter of design. There are some self-cleaning litterboxes that rotate like a portable concrete mixer, so the axis of rotation goes through the middle of the opening. Those should be by default much safer because there's no opening that closes.

And they definitely have their place - for starters, there are many cat owners who have to leave their pets alone for extended periods of time, like when they have to go to work.

The YouTube channel where the video I posted came from is all about cats and reviewing litterboxes. Maybe check it out?