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From: topher@cyb-eng.UUCP (Topher Eliot)
Newsgroups: net.pets,net.garden
Subject: Kitty poop in compost heap summary, and flame
Message-ID: <742@cyb-eng.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 11-Oct-85 09:32:41 EDT
Article-I.D.: cyb-eng.742
Posted: Fri Oct 11 09:32:41 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 14-Oct-85 06:15:51 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: Cyb Systems, Austin, TX
Lines: 71
Xref: watmath net.pets:1174 net.garden:791

I got LOTS of responses telling me not to put kitty litter in the compost
heap.  This, believe it or not, is just a small summary, along with one
other note:

> Extracted from "The Rodale Guide to Composting",
> quoting Harold S. Perimutter, M.D., of Newtom, New Jersey:
> 
> "Cat dropping harbor two extremely dangerous organisms, both of which
> are prominent causes of blindness, especially in children."
> ... 
> "The most common cause of retinal inflammation in this country is due
> to the one-celled parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, which is carried by the
> cat and excreted in its droppings. ... It causes a flu-like illness in
> pregnant women and can be transmitted to the unborn fetus, causing both
> brain and eye disease.
> The second organism is Toxocara cati, which is a nematode (round worm)
> of extremely common occurence in cats. ... cause infection in many organs,
> including the eyes."
> ...
> "I, therefore, urge that cat droppings and litter material be handled
> with extreme caution, if at all."

>    The disease that you are all talking about in conjunction with the 
> litter box and pregnant women is toxoplasmosis.  It is carried by the litter
> but according to my sources is not a danger until the feces has been stting
> around for over 24 hours thus "scooping" the box every day makes the chances
> of infection very slim.  Not only that, but not all cat feces carries this
> disease.  It is transmitted to cats through raw meat.  SO if your cat is an
> indoor cat who cannot catch birda and mice and so on and you don't feed it
> raw meat, I wouldn't worry about it.  (Although, if I ever get pregnant, you
> can sure bet that I'll use it as an excuse not to do the litter boxes!)
>    AS far as the compost is concerned, diseases aside, I don't think the cat 
> poop will do anything but bad.  As I understand it, herbivore manure, 
> particularly cow and horse are good but carnivores are no good and omnivores are 
> almost as bad.

> ... the litter you use for her box functions by drying the fecal
> matter. This is like little non-biodegradable rocks. A sewage engineer
> at an SCA event scolded me for placing the little morsels in the bowl
> intended for humans. They apparently block screens and sewage control
> equipment that is inteded to clean heavy nasties from the H2O.
 
> 	... you may be attracting other cats in the
> 	neighborhood for romance or fights.

> Ix nay nix on the kitty pix.
>   ...
> My advice is get a chicken for a pet.

There were at least four other similar responses.
 
And along with all the above, we have one of one of the
==FLAME ON==
stereotypical responses from a netter who doesn't really know what (s)he is
talking about, but just HAS to answer every question that comes down the
pike (at least this one came via mail, as I recall.  Most of those Bozos
post their guesses).

> I don't see any problem with "adding" to your
> compost heap except that you're likely to attract
> some of the neighborhood cats investigating
> the smell.
==FLAME OFF==

As you might imagine, my kitty poop is going out in the garbage.  Marmalade
is into the arching-her-back-and-bouncing-around-on-tippytoes phase now.
Unbearably cute.

Cheers,
Topher Eliot                Cyb Systems, Austin, TX               (512) 458-6609
      {gatech,harvard,ihnp4,nbires,seismo,ucb-vax}!ut-sally!cyb-eng!topher