A Woman Says an Automatic Litter Box Killed Her Cat

Everything we know about this viral story and the product behind it.

September 13, 2024

Update, Sept. 17, 2024:

Since this story’s original publish date, an Amazon page that previously included negative reviews of this specific lower-priced model of automatic litter box appears to have been taken down by the site. It now leads to a page that reads, “Sorry we couldn’t find that page.”

Thinking about getting an automatic litter box? Pro tip: Do your research first. And if you already have one and it looks like this, discontinue use immediately. Your cat’s life could depend on it.

Back in July, TikTok user Carli Jay (@carli.jay) posted a video, no longer available, detailing the horrific death of her one-year-old Siamese cat, Mochi, while she was using an automatic litter box purchased on Amazon. Jay says Mochi’s head got stuck when the machine began its cleaning cycle, cutting her throat and choking her to death overnight, while Jay and her family were sleeping.

Content creator and self-proclaimed automatic-litter-box enthusiast and vlogger One Man Five Cats has an informative video recapping what happened (including a clip of Jay’s original video) and demonstrating how the product is unsafe.

In her now-deleted comments on TikTok, Jay reportedly wrote that she bought her self-cleaning litter box from a brand called Amztoy, which even uses a font eerily similar to that used by well-known automatic litter box Litter-Robot by Whisker.

One Man Five Cats says that Jay reached out to him on TikTok, via one of his comments, and told him that as part of their financial settlement, Amztoy said they would remove their product from sale on Amazon. (If you go to the page now, you will see a landing page, but there is no link to buy the litter box). In exchange for this and the payment she received, Jay had to agree to delete her viral TikTok videos — she had posted a follow-up to her original — and to delete the Amazon review. Kinship has reached out to Amazon for comment.

Jay also told the vlogger that her husband was unable to delete the negative review, so he just changed it to a positive one. The original review read, “This machine killed my cat! Buyer beware this machine killed our family cat of two years she got stuck in this machine and it ended her life do not buy this machine.” The new review, also provided as a screenshot in the YouTube video, said, “Good machine with cute ears” and did not feature the original image.

This doesn’t end with Amztoy.

While Jay agreed to the settlement with the assurance that this product would not be sold anymore, it’s not that simple. As One Man Five Cats points out in his video, the litter box, clearly being marketed as a cheaper Litter-Robot dupe, was only branded and sold by Amztoy, not manufactured by them.

One Man Five Cats reports that, unfortunately, similarly designed litter boxes have been available from multiple sellers, all with different branding, across other sites, including Wayfair, eBay, and Temu. (Kinship has also reached out for comment from all three sellers.) And people are certainly buying them. This is likely because some of these models cost around a third of the price of the industry-leading and much safer automatic litter box from Whisker. But that steep discount comes at an even steeper cost: potentially, the life of your cat.

Although this particular self-cleaning litter box — and others like it on the market — does have sensors to prevent this kind of thing from happening, they are sold at cheap prices, which could indicate poor manufacturing. And given certain design flaws, those failures can pose a very real danger to your cat, especially if they are particularly small or young.

And Mochi isn’t the only victim of Amztoy’s shoddy litter box. One Man Five Cats reports three similar cat deaths in his video. He separately calls out the Popur automatic litter box, which, based on the appearance of its design, could easily trap a kitten in its waste compartment. Per One Man Five Cats, the CEO of Popur threatened to sue him after he posted a negative review of the product. And when asked why the litter box didn’t have any automatic shut-off fail safes, the CEO said he didn’t include them because he found it annoying when litter boxes stopped mid-cycle.

This story is not calling out all automatic litter boxes. But they might not be right for your cat.

Of course, not all automatic litter boxes are created equal, but even one that functions properly and has all the right safety features, may not be right for your cat. A couple years ago, I spent weeks trying to get my senior cat Pumpkin to switch to a self-cleaning litter box. He peed on my couch instead. Twice. And that was the end of that. I put his old litter box back and gave the Litter-Robot to a friend, whose cats had a more positive response to it, though they still preferred their traditional non-automated litter box.

I’m fortunate Pumpkin returned to his old litter box, because not all cats do, according to Joey Lusvardi, certified cat behavior expert at Class Act Cats. “The majority of cats really don’t like the self-cleaning litter boxes that are available right now,” Lusvardi says. “This leads to cats not using the litter box at all, in some cases even after the robotic litter box is removed.”

Even if your self-cleaning litter box is safe, and your cat uses it willingly, Lusvardi personally believes that a normal litter box is still for the best, especially when it comes to monitoring your cat’s health.

“One of the biggest problems with self-cleaning litter boxes is that they don’t allow you to monitor your cat’s health as well as you can with your own senses,” Lusvardi says. “My last cat died from bladder cancer, and the only symptom he had for a while was blood in his urine and an initial ultrasound didn’t show the cancer until it had progressed. While he was being monitored by his veterinarian, I ended up bringing him in earlier than planned and got a more sensitive ultrasound after he had urinated a large amount of bright red blood.”

He adds that another of his cats had giardia, which he was able to find because he observed and smelled the cat’s poop while picking it up. Some automatic litter boxes don’t allow for that kind of observation because if you’re using one, you’re not scooping your pet’s waste.

It is important to note, however, that higher-priced models, like the Litter-Robot, do allow you to see the waste levels in the drawer where it’s emptied, which you can check at any point. It also has sensors that tell it when the cat enters the “Globe” to do their business. Per Forbes, these sensors got an upgrade with the Litter-Robot 4, which are said to be more effective than those in the Litter-Robot 3.

Automatic litter boxes are machines. So, they can never be completely safe.

Even pet professionals who advocate on behalf of automatic litter boxes, like veterinarian Dr. Jessica Thompson, admit that 100 percent safety and efficacy is never guaranteed. “Automatic litter boxes are great for maintaining hygiene and reducing the daily chores of cat owners,” Dr. Thompson says. “But, as with any technology, there is always a potential for malfunction. Tragic accidents are possible, [so] it’s essential for all cat owners to thoroughly review the safety features of any automatic product they bring into their home to minimize risk.”

Plus, One Man Five Cats points out in his video, safety warnings on products like automatic litter boxes may not always be accurate or complete. And no matter what, kittens should never use automatic litter boxes. They are too small and often do not weigh enough to activate the sensors that would stop the litter boxes mid-cycle. Automatic litter boxes aren’t the only devices that pose an existential threat to cats. Anything mechanized can fail and put your cat in danger if you are not around to supervise.

“I’ve heard horror stories of pet technology malfunctioning from both clients and my cat behavior colleagues,” Lusvardi says. “Examples include automatic toys strangling cats, cats chewing on wires, and automatic feeders not going off when someone was gone for multiple days.”

He adds that he’s a “big fan” of automatic feeders but adds that they can easily clog, so pet parents need to keep a close eye on them. He also mentions that if you set up the automatic feeder for your cat while you’re on vacation, you should still have someone stop by your house to make sure it’s working correctly and that your kitty is receiving their food.

When in doubt, keep it simple.

“Some automation is fine, but too much isn’t a good thing,” Lusvardi says. “Cats are very sensitive to anything that spooks them. If, for example, a litter box makes noise while the cat is nearby, the cat may develop an aversion to the litter box.”

He adds that he had one client who wouldn’t even enter the room with the automatic litter box in it because the noise it made scared them. Plus, as cats get older, it can be harder for them to move in and out of a self-cleaning litter box or even one with a self-entry. He recommends just an easy-entry box to avoid any issues, especially later in your cat’s life.

Sometimes, the simplest solutions and products are the best. Cleaning your cat’s litter box can be a drag, but it is better than turning them off litter boxes entirely or putting their lives at risk. And if even after all this, you still want to try out an automatic litter box, please, for your cat’s sake (and in memory of Mochi) spend the money to buy a safe model. Buying from these alternative companies might save you a few bucks (even a few hundred) but those savings could very well cost your cat their life.

References:

Charles Manning

Charles Manning is an actor, writer, and fashion/media consultant living in New York City with his two cats, Pumpkin and Bear. Follow him on Instagram @charlesemanning.