Flushing dog or cat poo down the loo

[loubielou31]

I found out recently that someone I know, (but don't know well) flushes their dog poo. Please tell me this isn't actually a thing that's okay because it seemed pretty gross to me. I don't have dogs or cats so I haven't given it any thought before. I do know that cat poo in particular can have some parasite that is pretty dangerous for people. But maybe it's okay and water treatment is good enough to clear out all the nasties.

YABU: flushing is fine and better than all the plastic poo bags going into landfill.
YANBU: It's gross and carries germs that are not adequately removed from the water during sewerage treatment.

I wonder if maybe these parasites are increasing in number, are not easily dealt with by water treatment and if more people choose to dispose of their pet waste in the toilet the risk (albeit a small one) to human health increases.

As an aside, (again I don't own a cat but) I have always viewed anything that says flushable, like toilet wipes, tampons or as I have learned today cat litter on it with scepticism and a path to blocked drains!

That made me chuckle.

Dog and cat 💩, no not down the toilet.

It’d be a lovely world indeed if this was the case but only cats bury their waste, and even then sometimes it’s barely covered

wow, as it stands 78% of people think it's fine.
Although, I shouldn't be surprised really, people do gross things.

You shouldn't be flushing any animal waste down the toilet and you certainly shouldn't be flushing cat litter down there.

We have a dog and three cats - all the poo is picked up with poo bags and goes in the black bin outside.

Water companies specifically ask people not to do this, for the reasons above.

From 2014 but my water company apparently says it's fine https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/dog_mess_uu?unfold=1

I used to think this was a great way to get rid of it and better than landfill.

But I recently heard a programme on the radio about the water system and they said please do NOT do this, because the sewage treatment doesn't kill off those parasites, and then they go directly into the rivers etc and can very easily end up in the drinking water supply.

I guess with faeces on ground or in landfill the bacteria and parasites go into the soil, so for them to be washed out into the rivers is much rarer.
After all, you filter water by putting it through layers of sand and gravel, so if the water has to pass through layers of soil then a lot of the parasites will get filtered out?

Isn’t this just the sewage company trying to avoid the problem of treating whatever might be in there? In other words their job? But I suppose that would cost money and upset shareholders.

Putting dogger in the bin is pretty grim also, it’s quite likely that some poor operator will come into contact with it, more so than if it was flushed. What happens when councils/refuse companies start refusing to take it

Exactly this! I don't flush our dog's poo down teh toilet - I bag and bin it as advised - but if I wanted to, the advice from water companies would not stop me. They have lost all credibility in terms of advice about best practice.

teh = the

That’s shoehorning your own grievances into the conversation but generally animals defecating outside don’t do it directly into a river or water source do they?

Not burying waste just means it’ll degrade faster into the ground it’s on if left.

Well yes, but it’s grim enough that our coastlines have human turds bobbing around, we don’t really need to be dealing with a load of dog/cat and their parasites poo too.

All the info is out there : OK to put dog poop in the sewer?
Can I flush pet waste down the toilet? For those on a municipal sewer system, yes. This is can be a safe disposal method. For those on a septic system, no.

if it’s going on sand this is dangerous for people. Especially kids who will play and make sandcastles in the sand. Exposes them to worms

I think the numbers of genuinely wild animals is small enough in comparison that it causes very little problem.

Ever heard of rats? Sewage is treated to remove animal excrement and pathogens. Including that belonging to human animals.

My first dog must have been desperate to go to the loo one night when we were away. I usually got up no issue to take him out. But I didn’t as we’d been to a party and had a few drinks. Having watched me in the loo a million times, he copied me by pooing in the bidet at the hotel. Clever bean.

What @HeidiUpTheMountain said! Also @KrisAkabusi suggest you read this (from my water authority). Yours will have something similar

faq.anglianwater.co.uk/article/qed94917/can-you-flush-dog-poo-down-the-toilet

My dad digs a hole in his garden and chucks the dog shit in it. After a while he covers it up and digs a new hole

He has a large garden with a lot of unused areas though

To pick up dog muck and then put it down the loo seems odd

Absolutely gross. Animal owners are told to bag and bin their pets shit, not flush it down into the sewer system.

Just foul.

Eh???? Shoehorning my own grievances??? I was merely pointing out that animals don’t bury their waste. If they did then we’d not be treading in it. And the outdoor access code states that if a human is caught short out in the wilds then you should dig a hole and bury your poo.

Why not? It's all poo and it's designed to go down a Loo.

I used to chuck the cat poos from the litter tray down the loo and never thought anything of it.

I don't now as we have a different tray and type of litter (which means it doesn't pong) and I dispose of it in the general waste.

I'm surpised that water companies are concerned about this. They dump raw sewage into rivers all the time, so they clearly aren't bothered about threadworms and MRSA getting into the rivers, and they use chlorine to treat drinking water, which you'd think would kill any roundworms.

You can count on one hand how often Dcat uses his tray in a year, but when he does, I've always flushed it. I use a cellulose cat litter for this reason.