CAT-astrophe: NYC couple claims beloved rescue kitty crushed by self-cleaning litter box
A Bronx woman came home to a grisly cat-astrophe — her beloved feline was fatally crushed by a self-cleaning litter box.
Stephanie Gomez knew something was wrong when she stepped off the elevator in her Williamsbridge apartment building and heard one of her two cats, Sebastian, crying from down the hall, she said.
The medical assistant opened her door to find Sebastian frantic — and her other cat, Sarabi, dead, partially stuck inside her Autoscooper 11 litter box.
4 Sarabi was a friendly, playful cat, said Gomez, who rescued the furball after finding her crying on the street on a rainy night in the Bronx.
'I turned on the light. . . . I saw my cat being crushed by the machine,' an emotional Gomez, 35, told The Post of the gruesome Jan. 27 incident. 'It was making an awful sound.
'The machine is supposed to automatically stop when there is a body in it. The machine did not stop, it was still trying to close on her.'
The tiny domestic shorthair's body was cold to the touch, with its rear and hind legs sticking out of the machine, according to Gomez and a $3 million Bronx Supreme Court lawsuit she and her partner, Frank Gueits, filed.
'It was completely devastating,' she said. 'I collapsed.'
4 Stephanie Gomez insists she'll never trust a similar automated device again.
J.C. Rice
She immediately called Gueits for help.
'Stephanie was very frantic, very upset and crying,' he said, recalling Sarabi's body was so mutilated by the machine 'she looked like she was in an L shape. It was really heartbreaking to see.'
The litter box, which retails for about $200, was a Christmas gift from Gomez' mother and advertised as 'remaining partially open at all times, with no complete enclosure that could entrap a pet,' according to the lawsuit, which names Pet Pivot, the California-based company which makes the Autoscooper 11, and Amazon, which sold the device.
'A catastrophic failure of the product's safety mechanisms' led to Sarabi's 'long, painful death,' Gomez and Gueits said in court papers.
4 The Autoscooper 11 advertises itself as safe and claims sensors prevent cats from being trapped inside.
PetPivot/ Amazon
The same night, Gueits, 48, found an Amazon review of the Autoscooper 11 from a cat owner who claimed the littler box 'nearly killed their cat,' but the review was later removed, the couple claimed.
Gomez' mother got a full refund after Sarabi's death and a handwritten letter from PetPivot CEO Poppy Xie, which lacked company letterhead or an address, offering condolences and $10,000, Gomez said in legal papers.
The couple believes 'the $10,000 offer was an effort to quietly settle or suppress claims relating to the product's fatal defect,' they contended.
Sarabi, who weighed less than 10 pounds, 'was the sweetest little thing,' Gomez said.
'She was so wonderful, she was the friendliest kitty. She was . . . very talkative, and don't leave your plate of food unattended,' Gomez laughed. 'There's not a day that goes by that I don't mourn her.'
4 Sebastian still sleeps on the spot where Sarabi was killed, Gomez said.
She rescued Sarabi more than a year earlier, after she heard the kitty crying on a rainy night outside her local laundromat, and followed the sound until she found the cat hiding under a van.
She named the grey striped feline after a character in Disney's 'The Lion King.'
Sebastian has been devastated by the loss, with Gomez hand-feeding him for weeks afterward.
'To this day, Sebastian sleeps on the spot where the Autoscooper had killed Sarabi,' according to the lawsuit.
'I will never trust an automated machine again,' Gomez said. 'I don't want this to happen to anyone else.'
Amazon and Pet Pivot did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The device is still being sold — and advertised as safe, said Peggy Collen, the attorney representing Gomez and Gueits.
'Sarabi's death was not an accident,' Collen said. 'If this happened to Sarabi, it could happen to any cat.'
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