Customers are outraged over allegations that a type of self-cleaning litter box is supposedly killing cats.
Cat product reviewer Philip Bloom highlights potentially lethal robotic litter boxes on his YouTube channel A man five cats on Saturday.
She highlighted the example of a woman named Carli Jay, who shared in a since-deleted TikTok that an automatic litter box she purchased on Amazon allegedly killed her beloved Siamese cat named Mochi.
“I went to get my cat and she was hanging out of her litter box. Her neck was closed and her body was hanging down and there was blood, red stuff everywhere and she was gone,” Jay said through tears.
Bloom said the mother used a type of litter box sold under the brand name Amztoy on Amazon that rotates on the Y axis instead of the X axis to clean the box.
Cat product reviewer Philip Bloom demonstrated how one model of automatic litter box could be lethal to a stuffed animal (pictured)
A woman named Carli Jay shared in a TikTok that she later deleted that an automatic litter box she bought on Amazon allegedly killed her beloved Siamese cat named Mochi (pictured)
She demonstrated the alleged design flaw in a similar product she purchased on Ali Express with a stuffed animal and showed that the model’s inlet closes completely when being cleaned.
If the sensors malfunction and do not detect that a cat is near or inside the box, the animal could become trapped inside or become trapped when the door closes.
The Amztoy litter box models have been pulled from Amazon, but Bloom found several other companies selling robotic litter boxes with the same design.
Angry customers have flooded reviews of these similar products, warning others about the risk they pose.
Bloom concluded that Jay was using a type of litter box sold under the brand name Amztoy on Amazon that rotates on the Y axis instead of the X axis to clean the box.
“This is very dangerous for cats as it can guillotine them. I cannot stress enough my recommendation not to buy it as it has killed many cats,” said one reviewer of a Catlk product, which apparently had a replica of the design.
“It will literally guillotine your cat,” said another person in a similar review of a CozyBlue product.
One reviewer said of a Kikquze litter box: “Faulty sensor that will trap your cat and kill it. Beware, this product is for sale from different sellers. DO NOT BUY IT, IT’S A SCAM.”
DailyMail.com has reached out to Amazon, Catlk, CozyBlue, Kikguze and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission for comment on this story.
No official recall has been issued for this type of litter box.
More and more cat owners are opting for automatic litter boxes to avoid having to clean the tray several times a day and pick up litter regularly.
Bloom recommends avoiding generic machines and sticking to established brands.