(though cat and dog feces are definitely not recommended for compost)

They are if you COMPOST them first.

A somewhat complicated issue...

See for example http://www.uaf.edu/ces/compost/dogs.html
http://www.extension.umn.edu/yardand...e-dog-cat.html

What we do is have a separate compost bin (buried trash can, with the
bottom cut out) for the dog waste. It will be a while before we need
to worry about what to do with the compost (it reduces in volume with
time), but probably we'll eventually rotate the fresh waste to a
different can and let the old one sit for a year or so and use it on
the garden. Despite the lack of high temperatures in this kind of
bin, I'm not persuaded that it is particularly likely to transmit
disease, especially compared with other activities like picking up the
dog doo in the first place (hand-washing after dog walks strikes me as
being at least as important as any composting protocol here).