Cross Post about automatic litter boxes

uabassoon

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I saw this on another site that I'm on, I'm not sure if it's been posted here or not but I thought I should post it anyways.

Sent: 2/8/2003 10:25 PM

A tragedy caused by a litter-box. Maybe we should ALL just clean our own
boxes.

PLEASE CROSS POST TO ANY AND ALL LISTS!

A lot of us also own cats and right at this moment I am devastated to say
that I, my daughter and my mother in law are in mourning over the loss of a
beautiful little kitten named Kanga. He was only 5 months old and was
raised by us from the time he was three weeks old and a wild kitten. My
mother in law has one of those automatic litter boxes that sweeps the litter
into a containment system. This litter box killed this poor baby about an
hour ago. He had his neck broken (at least we hope he went that quick
because I hate to envision the alternatives) by the sweeping mechanism.
Please warn everyone you know about this danger. The machine was
supposed to have a sensor that stops it when the cat goes into the box but
unfortunately for Kanga it didn't.. Now we no longer have this beautiful little
boy. He was so full of life and just loved everyone. PLEASE WARN
EVERYONE EVEN IF THEY DON'T HAVE A CAT YET!!! THEY MAY
SOME DAY. We have a call into the company to find out if this happened
before and what can be done about making these boxes safer. Please say
a little prayer for Kanga.

Thanks for listening, Karen Havighorst
 

lorie d.

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OMG what a terrible way to lose a kitten! I prefer the old fashioned way of manually cleaning litterboxes, but I am still interested in information about the safety of the automatic litterboxes.
 

creepyowl

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I thought of getting one of them but NO NO NO NO NO! I would rather scoop and keep my kitten alive!

I hope that person says something to the company who made the litter box!!!!


I'm outraged!!!!
 

raggiemom

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that is so sad and tragic....

but i could SWEAR that those automatic boxes have a warning on them they are not meant for kittens for any circumstances (i think due to their size)....it might be worth a little research to get to the bottom of things.
 

vettechstudent

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I have one and used it with my cats until 2 kittens came into my home.I kept it turned off for a few months.I leave it on again,but the kittens are big enough now.

The thing is with those sensors,a tiny kitten can easily get in and out without having to pass by the sensor.
 

tuxedokitties

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How heartbreaking.

I bought an automatic litter box a couple of years ago, but ended up not using it b/c the cats would pee in the corner of the box, digging way down, and the sweeper arm would't scrape the corner thoroughly enough.
 

lorie d.

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Originally posted by vettechstudent
The thing is with those sensors,a tiny kitten can easily get in and out without having to pass by the sensor.
According to the post, the kitten that was killed was 5 months old, and apparently he was still too small. Does the manufacturer recommend a miminum size and weight for cats who will be using this litterbox?
 

KittenKrazy

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Originally posted by Lorie D.
Originally posted by vettechstudent

According to the post, the kitten that was killed was 5 months old, and apparently he was still too small. Does the manufacturer recommend a miminum size and weight for cats who will be using this litterbox?
not that I've seen, and I have three of them. Have been using them for about three years now with no problems, even when we were raising kittens.
 
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