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Monday, 15 November 2021

Can I put cat poop in the toilet?

It's a bad idea to put cat poop down the toilet for one major and one minor reason.

Two cats peeing or pooping on a human toilet at the same time. Screenshot
Two cats peeing or pooping on a human toilet at the same time. Screenshot. 

Major reason

If you put cat put down the toilet you going to put some sodium bentonite clay-based litter down the toilet with it if your use the stuff. That can block toilets because the sodium bentonite expands and clogs things up. It must be very difficult to separate cat poop from the clay substrate so I don't think this works. A wood-based litter is less problematic but only three things should be flushed down a human toilet: human shit, pee and paper.

RELATED: “Killer cat parasite” infects whales. Defending the cat

Minor reason

This may be a major reason depending on its veracity but it is at least a minor one 😉. The people who don't like cats, the anti-cat brigade, have claimed that sea otters and beluga whales have been damaged by toxoplasmosis. The toxoplasmosis has infected them through toxoplasma gondii oocysts in cat faeces which had been flushed down the toilet.

Somehow the waste finds its way into the sea. That may happen if water companies are not processing waste properly or it is allowed to drain directly out to the sea illegally, but it does happen sometimes.

If sea otters and beluga whales are indeed harmed in this way then it's a good reason to throw away cat poop in landfill in the usual way. It's more tiresome and troublesome but all-in-all it is safer and more sensible.

This also affects a decision on whether you train your cat to use the human toilet which is quit popular nowadays. I think the risk as described is very small so we can call this objection very minor.

RELATED: Fake news: New York Times’ article about house cats killing sea otters

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