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Actors Chris Pratt and Anna Faris gave away their 19-year-old incontinent cat Bella because they were worried it would affect a future pregnancy.
A lot of people had probably never heard of Chris Pratt until the recent “Cat-gate,” as one celebrity news website called it.
Pratt plays doofus Andy Dwyer in the sitcom “Parks and Recreation.” But many animal-lovers now think Pratt’s the doofus for giving away Bella, his incontinent 19-year-old cat.
It probably didn’t help that he broadcast his intentions to 56,000 followers on Twitter. Apparently stunned at the outcry, Pratt blogged “my wife (actress Anna Faris) and I want to start a family and we ABSOLUTELY CANNOT have an animal that sh*ts all over the house.”
Pratt and Faris are far from the only couple to ditch a cat or dog because of concerns over how it would fit in with pregnancy and a baby.
Stephanie Williams, a veterinary technician at the Animal Rescue League of Western Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh, sighs when asked how often she sees it happen. “Probably at least once a day. We try to talk people out of it, but usually they’re pretty set on what they want.”
One common misconception is that it’s dangerous for pregnant women to live in the same house as a cat, which may have contributed to Pratt and Faris's decision to send Bella packing.
It’s true that cats are the only animals that can transmit the rare parasitic disease toxoplasmosis through their feces. Toxoplasmosis usually doesn’t make cats or healthy humans sick, but infection in a pregnant woman can cause a miscarriage or birth defects.
The thing is, you’re more likely to contract toxoplasmosis from eating undercooked meat or unwashed fruits or vegetables than you are from changing your cat’s litterbox, especially if your cat never goes outside.
“To get toxoplasmosis from your cat requires a lot of things to happen,” explains internist Jeff Kravetz, an associate professor at Yale and self-described cat lover who’s had two since before his wife delivered their two children. “It has to eat a mouse or something else that’s living outdoors and actually has toxoplasmosis. If you have an indoor cat, there’s almost no risk at all, unless you have a mouse running around your house.”
Plus, toxoplasmosis isn’t a chronic or recurring infection. If your cat happens to contract it, which usually occurs in the first year of life, not the 19th, it will excrete the parasite’s eggs in its feces for only a week Kravetz notes. After that, it’s immune for the rest of its life.
In other words, the chance that Faris might have caught toxoplasmosis from Bella was vanishingly small.
Several years ago, the Humane Society of the United States mailed out toxoplasmosis information packets to every member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology. The packet included a brief survey, which 1,500 doctors answered and returned, says Nancy Peterson, cat programs manager at the Humane Society.
Of the 1,500, Peterson says, 42 said they would advise pregnant cat-owners to get rid of their cat or at least put it outside. While 42 might seem like a pretty small minority of ob-gyns, Peterson says, you have to figure that their patients are spreading the words to their friends. “That’s how this myth just goes on and on and on.”
(For more information about pets and pregnancy and babies, check out the Humane Society’s website at humansociety.org)
Rita Rubin, a contributing writer for msnbc.com and today.com, previously covered medicine for USA Today and U.S. News & World Report. She lives in suburban Washington, D.C., with her husband and two daughters.
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I think it's awful that people get rid of pets during pregnancy. I've had 2 cats for 7 years, including all the months of my 2 3/4 pregnancies. I've never had any problems. They have been indoor cats for about 5 years but I use pregnancy as an excuse to get my husband to take over litter box duty. Had my cats not spent 3 months outdoors at my family's farm this summer I probably would have been cleaning the litter box myself this time around, but since they were hunting wild creatures I decided not to take the risk. But I would never, ever get rid of an animal because of pregnancy. Most of the time, animals adjust well to babies. Occasionally a cat will scratch, but usually they'll leave babies alone if they (the cat) aren't interested. Dogs can be a different story sometimes and it's sad when a family has to rehome a dog because it displayed aggressive behavior. But it's extremely irresponsible for a pet owner to automatically give up their pet (a family member) simply because they want a baby. That kind of logic is absolutely outrageous. Would they give up their tantruming toddler because they want another baby? Of course not. Children can be trained to behave properly around babies and so can most animals. If you adopt an animal and make it a part of your family you should not be able to give it up because of ignorant fears.
Has anyone considered that these people might not want their baby playing in cat poop?
Good point ;)
well then how irresponsible are these 2 soon-to-be-parents if they are incapable of keeping their precious kid away from cat poop? Keep the door to the litter box closed. Keep an eye on the kid. Geeeesh - is this so difficult to figure out?
GracieM, before you go "Geeeesh"ing people, read the article. The cat is incontinent. What would be a shame is if these 2 were fine with a cat pooping all over a home with a child in it. And btw, it's a cat. Most people when they have elderly parents that they can't take care of anymore have them brought into a nursing home. What's the difference in that and getting rid of a cat you can no longer take care of or may cause problems to an actual human member of the family?
Playing with cat poop? Interesting concept. I was raise around cats since I was a baby. I never tried to play with cat poop.
I assume then, since you are using yourself as a comparison, that your cat, too, had a problem pooping all over the house? If you have an animal that is free to roam the home and has a problem like this, who knows where the cat will go. And who's to say you would find it before your child does? And how do you know you didn't play with cat poop? Do you remember when you were, say, 2 years old?
If there is poop all over the house, and babies put everything in their mouth...well you do the math fgh.
why would a baby be playing in the poop? ever heard of covered litter boxes such as modcat?? you clearly never had a pet. this type of thinking is exactly what spreads the myth described above. very sad
I've had 2 cats for 10 years now and I'm pregnant with my second child. My cats are spayed, declawed and are 100% indoor cats. My oldest cat never leaves my bedroom (her choice) so I'm not worried at all about contracting the virus. However, it's a good excuse to make hubby clean the litter box everyday :)
Oh good grief, can people not find something else to bitch about? They have every right to think about the safety and hygiene of the home they plan to bring a baby into. It is totally THEIR business, get a life people!
Animals should not be disposable. These people are ignorant and if their cat is pooping all over the house there is either a physical or emotional problem. It would have been better had they tried to get to the root of the problem instead of tossing away an old pet. Shame on them.
I never for a moment even considered getting rid of my 11-year-old cat when I became pregnant in May 2010. I just gave litter box cleaning duty over to my mother during the duration of my pregnancy and resumed it after my son's February birth. The idea of getting rid of any animal because a baby is coming doesn't make sense to me. The only way I'd consider it is if my animals, (I also have a German Shepard/Black Lab), have exhibited aggression toward anyone, in particular small children. But I certainly wouldn't do it because of a tiny risk of contracting an illness. All a pregnant woman has to do is delegate litter box duty to someone else and if she can't, wear gloves when handling the contents of the box and wash her hands thoroughly afterwards. Anything more than that is a bit drastic.
If a cat poops all over the house, there is a physical problem for it. Cats just don't decide not to use a litter box.
I could NOT imagine giving away a 19-year-old cat (who is going to adopt one that old and sick?). Ignorance and lack of knowledge abounds with this couple.
Cat's can also be easily trained to cry at a door to get indoors and outdoors. Unforunately, a stigma now exists against letting cats outside.
the cat was incontinent when they got it, multiple years ago. it is apparently just an on gong problem with this cat...
that is why he went on twitter to find it a loving home.
In a case like this I would follow my doctor's advise. He told me during all three of my pregnancies, DO NOT come in contact with the cat litter box!
That is excellent advice. He did not tell you to get rid of your cats, just not to clean out the litter box as no pregnant woman should. My daughter has two children and several cats. Her husband took care of the litter boxes during her pregnancies. They did not get rid of their much beloved pets.
Hopefully they gave it to a family member or close friend who will give it a good, loving home for it's remaining time. But there's a good chance that 19 YEAR OLD, incontinent cat would have passed away by the time they got pregnant and had the baby. The poor cat will now probably suffer from separation anxiety after being disposed of by the only family it probably ever knew.
Wonder how many times their baby will need to sh#t all over the house before IT gets disposed of.
This cat reminds me a bit of one of my family's cats. He always goes in the litterbox, but sometimes he scratches in the litterbox and knocks clumps out onto the carpet so I clean those up too sometimes. Or clumps stick to his fur--it's kind of long--and then they fall on the carpet. And sometimes the dogs are the culprits. It's gross, but sometimes they eat out of the litterbox and scatter "presents" everywhere. It's hard sometimes, having pets, but they're fun and cute even when annoying. I really hope someone adopts the old kitty. I think someone out there will. My teacher has a lot of adopted cats, so someone like her probably would adopt the cat. The cat's a senior after all and we should be nice to seniors. :)
I just hope the couple doesn't feel bad later about giving away their cat because that's hard to deal with.
If one acquire's an animal, they should atleast try to make provisions for the care of the animal through it's whole lifespan.
Getting rid of the animal at the end is just selfish. Putting an animal down just because it's end is near is wrong, unless the animal is in constant pain. This is true, because death at the end of life is a natural and normal process.
The cat is 19....it's on its way out anyway. I'm not being mean. I love cats! I'm just being practical.
I have a simple solution to people that give away their pets cause they are worried about pregnant women and children... DONT GET ANY PETS IN THE FIRST PLACE. The animals would be better off without you...P.S i have 2 kids and have pets i am a multi-tasker...i can take care of children and pets at the same time and my kids are just fine..
oh for crying out loud! if you knew anything about the story, they had the cat for multiple years but now can't have an INCONTINENT cat around a baby-when that baby starts crawling, the cat's poop is going to become a severe problem!
they did the RESPONSIBLE thing and found the cat a new, loving home.
how can you tell people not to get pets? NOBODY knows for sure where they're life will take them in 5+ years, not even you.
if one becomes crippled and can no longer take care of the pet (or even dies) your saying they should not have gotten the pet in the first place? oh, i'm sorry! i should have saw into the future and saw that i was going to get into that car accident, my bad!
what if one of your kids develops a SEVERE allergy (like my mother-who's whole face swells up and can literally barely breathe when she is around cats). would you still keep your pets? or would you find them a loving home? i would hope the latter as the former is just cruel (to either your child OR to the cat as i am sure you would force it to keep away from the child).
Also if your pregnant and have a cat then make sure your husband cleans out the cats box...mine did..
i believe , these two were SELFISH ,IGNORANT CRUEL human being , if they do this to innocent animal who can't speak or fight for his rights what proof you have that they will not do this to their own parents , same kind of ppl are the one who, get rid of their parents ...sending them to nursing home and never pay a visit until the day they die.. .
i was brought up with all sort of animals around , i remember i had cats on my bed next to me when i was toddler... and my mom is a big time animal lover , and she had 5 healthy kids , i have two sisters who each had 3 healthy kids .. what crap ppl talk... all i know now humans are becoming more and more selfish and they come up with ridiculous baseless stories .. only innocent animals suffers from this .. for GOD sake .. have a heart .. once you take something its your family just like your giving a birth to your own child...... we dont give up our children if they are sick or poop all over the house...
COME ON you can always clean poop with gloves its not that u taking bite out of it ... not every one is stupid to believe excuses ppl give ..
GOD BLESS BELLA .... those ppl dont deserve her ... untill this story came out i dont even know who is this CHRIS PRATT EVEN/ANNA FARIS .. now that i know what they did , i am not even interested .. trust me i will change the channel if its them .... because, i will be sick looking at them for what they did......
in short for the topic NO WE SHOULD NOT GIVE UP OUR PETS FOR ANY REASON.... THEY ARE OUR FAMILY ... IF THEY MADE US HAPPY ONCE, IN OUR LIFE , Why do we have to be so selfish and give up them ? just because animals can't speak its not right to do ,what ever we want ... they are not toys robots with no feelings ...