Hear me out first please!
She did a very wrong thing, and I would have been furious if she had done that to my cat. However, I am extremely disturbed by the way she has been portrayed by the tabloid and national media. First, I think it may be illegal to film people without their knowledge (I am not sure about the exact regulations) but I am sure that you have to be informed if you are being watched on CCTV. She may not have done this to the kitty cat had she known she was being filmed and the cat would have been spared its ordeal.
To them put said film on the internet and trample all over the person?s privacy, is imo, not a very nice thing to do. Perhaps, all the owners wanted to do was identify the woman. But there must have been other ways to do this? Take it to the police maybe? RSPCA? But to make the recording (which may have been illegal in the first place) and then post it without a thought of the way in which this person?s life would be affected is thoughtless in the extreme.
How would the owners of the cat feel if, due to their video, some psychotic animal lover seriously injured or even killed Mary Bale?
I am also very disturbed by the way the media have jumped on this bandwagon, with some pretty abusive things being said about her. Let?s face it, which of us has not reacted in some shit way when we are stressed? But we have not been made into national hate figures. And there are people who have done worse in their lives who get away scot free.
I think that what Mary Bale did to the cat was very wrong and she should be punished suitably. However, I also cannot condone, what I see as extremely irresponsible behaviour, by the owners of putting the video on what is essentially a window to the world and ruining the woman?s life.