Can I flush cats mess down the toilet ?

[ThatFairy]

Just saw someone saying this on a thread. I always thought that as there's usually litter attached when scooping you can't do this ? I tie it in little bags and leave next to the litter tray till I put a bin bag out, I put out a bin bag once a day, so if I could do this it would be a lot more hygienic

There definitely needs to be more awareness raised about what can go down the toilet. I once had a patient tell me she scraped all her waste food from the plate directly into the toilet FGS.

It’s complicated and depends on the water source.

www.water.org.uk/water-supply/drinking-water

Our water company specifies poo, pee and paper. Doesn’t say human poo. I don’t suppose it’s occurred to them there would be any other kind flushed down a human loo.

Argh

I went on a first date with my boyfriend to Deepham's Sewage Works when we were both 16.

Goodness, that was a long time ago.
🤣

No don’t do that!

This is like a bottle of bleached saying “don’t drink the bleach.” It is a warning that should not be required because it is bloody obvious. We all know about water treatments, and that it is designed for human waste. Not your cat’s. It’s just idiotic behaviour.

What did you think happened to the water? I’m in Scotland. We have loads of “Scottish water” adverts up here. Even at the cinema! They literally show you the treatment plants in the adverts. What did you think was happening? 🫤

I always did when we had a tray. Otherwise it's just a faff and stinky. Apparently it's not great though as the water firms don't necessarily put in chemicals that are designed to kill the specific germs etc you get in cat poo.

Surely there's a shit ton literally of chemicals going down the toilet via people on various drugs/meds? And manky wet wipes, etc etc.

Why are you so condescending? If we all knew that the poster wouldn’t be saying that would she. Maybe you’ll get further in life offering advice rather than talking to people like they are stupid

Oh come on. This thread has more than one person who has thought flushing cat chit was totally fine, and another person who thinks Scotland doesn’t recycle water… despite all the adverts we get in Scotland telling us about it! It is infuriating, and depressing. So no, I’m pretty done with patience when it comes to genuinely quite stupid behaviour.

Both toxoplasmosis and toxocara survive the water treatment process. Cat poo should never be flushed.

In California, the flushing of cat poo has been directly linked to the death of sea otters. It is highly probable that water dwelling mammals here could also be affected.

It's not quite the same as "recycling" water.

For the most part in Scotland our mains feed originates in fresh water reservoir. Sewerage is treated then discharged into salt water, so it's not as if they are simply cleaning and filtering effluent and putting that straight back into the mains.

And to those saying their litter says it is flushable, so do many disposable wipes, and we know enough now to know that they should never be flushed.

There is indeed - so much so that there is a theory that oestrogen in wastewater (primarily from women on the pill/HRT) is contributing towards a global decline in sperms counts. Also, sewage sludge (containing a cocktail of pharmaceuticals including antibiotics, painkillers, illegal drugs etc) is sprayed onto farmland, so it's likely that some of these substances find their way into the food chain.

It's definitely a problem, especially in terms of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, but at least these are all human drugs. We don't want to add veterinary meds to the sewage cocktail to make it even worse!

I agree and thank you for sticking up for others I like to see that. I can see where she was thinking why not because the water is completely cleaned of human sewage, blood, parasites and germs and it isn't a stretch to believe the process would clean animals waste as well

I suppose I have the idea in my head that English sewage is cleaned and then returned to drinking water reservoirs whereas in Scotland we have a lot of freshwater reservoirs we process to drink and then sewage went somewhere else and was separated. I haven't really thought about it and can see I might have made a mistake I'm not sure

I'm not stupid I'm asking a question and didn't study environmental science to that level or watch these adverts !

And what about all the wild animals waste and parasites getting onto the water ? Surely it's cleaned ?

@ThatFairy
What on earth made you think that flushing animal shit down a toilet was normal?

You are correct in that for the most part treated water is discharged into salt water in Scotland. It's so diluted that they no longer even bother UV treating it to kill ecoli and suchlike.

All water on earth and in the atmosphere, has been there since the creation of the earth

Its been through millions of bladders

One of my cats regularly wees in the toilet …. Maybe I should stop him if the sewer system can’t cope 😅

Thank you. I'll wait for my apology that I'm idiotic for knowing Scotland does not reuse waste water for drinking. Not very nice to go around calling people idiots just because you believe something different from others.