Cat owners are claiming in online reviews that several popular self-cleaning, automated litter boxes are killing cats.
Youtube video creator Philip Bloom has a channel called One Man Five Cats. On September 9, he uploaded a video examining allegations cat owners have made that the electric litter boxes have proven lethal to their cats.
One of the alleged incidents featured a distraught cat owner named Carli Jay who claimed in a TikTok video that an automated litter box she bought on Amazon killed her Siamese cat Mochi. Jay claims that the box had closed a panel on Mochi’s neck, and that she came home to find the cat “hanging from the litter box.” The cat was trapped by the neck with her body hanging down from inside the box, Jay said, and the cat was covered in blood.
Youtuber Bloom said the specific model was sold with the brand-name Amztoy. This model apparently rotates its cleaning arm in an unusual direction unlike that used by other automated litter boxes. Bloom showed what he called a design flaw using a similar litter box he ordered from the online retailer Ali Express. Using a stuffed toy, Bloom showed how the box closes itself entirely during the cleaning cycle. He said that if the sensors don’t detect that a cat is inside the box or near its entrance, the animal can be trapped or be injured.
For now, the Amztoy boxes are gone from Amazon’s website, but Bloom said there are several makers who manufacture automatic litter boxes designed in the same fashion. One customer who bought such a box left a review calling them “very dangerous for cats” and said they can “guillotine your cat.”
“Guillotine” is one of the most frequent descriptions used about these boxes by buyers who left reviews. One customer recommended avoiding a box made by the company CozyBlue. Another customer left a review of the Kikquze automatic litter box, saying that a “flawed sensor” can lead to your cat being trapped and killed. The customer said the litter box is sold under many different brand names, but that no one should buy it.
Those who have had a horrible experience with the boxes recommend that cat owners avoid “knock-offs” and stick to established brand names.
So far no regulatory bodies have issued recalls for these kinds of litter boxes.
