An animal waste handling apparatus having a cylindrical housing with an opening to allow an animal to enter to relieve itself in litter held in the interior volume of the housing. The apparatus has a sifting drawer that is removably mounted in the interior volume of the housing and is carried for rotational movement when the housing is rotated about its axis. The sifting drawer includes an open top, an unobstructed interior volume and a filter member spaced from the open top. During a rotational sifting cycle, the sifting drawer enters the litter to capture the litter for filtering to separate animal waste from the litter. The filtered litter remains in the interior volume of the housing and filtered out waste is retained in the sifting drawer. The sifting drawer is removed along a direction that is parallel to the axis of the housing about which the housing is rotated.