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.“I turned on the light..

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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.”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.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 rem...