to be very disturbed by the treatment of Mary Bale (cat-in-the-bin-woman!)

[tweetymum]

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.

i really want to say

she is a fucking idiot. and she is unharmed.

it's a living being, and what she did was atrocious and cruel beyond belief. She must be a cruel person, but I do feel sorry for her suffering now, as she must be afraid and knows that most of the country is against her. She should be punished but I think the media should stop its coverage of her now.

i think the media frenzy has been nuts. the sun again, that quality purrrrrr-veyer (get it?!!) of news...

i say leave the RSPCA to prosecute. job done.

Whilst I can't condone any acts of knowing cruelty (even to cats) I feel really uncomfortable about the priorities of the Great British Public when things like this happen. Collectively we don't seem to get as upset by the everyday cruelty and injustice meted out to people - child prostitution, domestic violence, poverty... Show a clip of a middle-aged woman putting a cat in a bin and the wrath of the masses is unleashed.

I'm also uncomfortable at the action of the cat owners. Why would your first port of call be to put the vid on the net in order to find the culprit? If it was me I'd approach the Police with my evidence in the first instance. I wonder if they did this, didn't get the answer they wanted and so decided to take the law into their own hands? In any event, the punishment that she has had meted out to her in no way fits the "crime". How can death threats, needing a police presence at your house, and potentially losing your livelihood be a justified punishment for putting a domestic pet in a bin?

Maybe if more people who abuse humans were caught on CCTV the media would clear some space in their reporting. But then again it unfortunately there'd be so much of it it would no longer be news...

YANBU

[Disclosure: I am not a cat lover. The fact that neighbourhood cats shit in my vegetable patch thus meaning I can't take my DS in to help dig it, etc, does not make me sympathetic to cats or to cat owners].

OK I have seen the footage on TV and have only read a few posts about it on mumsnet. The cat owners had her on a personal CCTV camera, it was a cruel thing for her to do, they should have shown the footage to the RSPCA or police, not posted it on the internet and/or feed it to the press. You wouldn't do that if you caught an intruder or burglar on your private CCTV you would show it to the authorities instead.

I hope nothing happens to the woman except a charge of animal cruelty or whatever it merits.

YABU. She committed a crime and got caught; she deserves punishment and, since she's not a minor, her identity made public.

And the fact that the cat survived doesn't change anything: it experienced prolonged distress and fear which were knowingly and intentionally inflicted for no reason other than the criminal's pleasure in inflicting suffering to a defenseless being.

Btw unfortunately cats are victims of random violence and I remember reading somewhere that many are thrown alive into bottle-banks .

She deserves to go to jail, but unfortunately she'll just walk free with a small fine and 3 hours' community service.

Thanks Avril, I'm even more angry now! So the Police said no crime committed and the owners then did take the law into their own hands!

I think the pet owners should be sued by the police to recover the costs of the protection that had to be given to Mary Bale. Mary Bale should sue the pet owners to recover all costs she has/will incur above and beyond any financial sanction imposed by a court of law. If she does lose her job then a compensation claim certainly should be made against them - the only reason she might lose her job is the publicity caused by the CCTV footage being put on the internet, not by any offence Mary Bale may or may not have committed.

FFS the police have got more worthwhile things to be allocating resources to than this.

[Disclosure: I've had another glass of this very good Cabernet Sauvignon since my last post]

if she loses her job she's only got herself to blame, not the cats' owners fgs. She deserves to be named and shamed to reduce her ability to hurt another defenseless being. (i.s if she was my friend or relative, I'd now know better than to trust her with my pets and dc)

YANBU

Stupid idiotic posters on facebook and the like have made anonymous threats about her.

No one has harmed her. No one has caused her any physical distress. I seriously doubt anyone will.

Why the hell shouldn't the owners of the cat make this footage public? They wanted to know who was cruel to their cat and now they know. Job done. I don't feel in the least bit sorry for her.

Rubbish! She's totally innocent of any crime until proven guilty. If she is found guilty of any offence relating to animal cruelty it does not preclude her from working in a bank. Fraud? Yes. Cats in bins? If it wasn't released onto the internet and garnered negative publicity for her employers then they wouldn't know, or wouldn't care if they did.

Hurt defenceless beings? I do hope you don't own leather shoes or furniture, eat meat, eggs or dairy or purchase any products containing palm oil contributing to destroying forest habitats...

Nick the cat owners for incitement to violence I say.

[It really is a bloody good wine, this]

Oh don't be such a nob.

DysonDad, your argument sucks (get it? ): killing animals for food is acceptable. Torturing them is not.

(btw I only buy free range eggs and try to avoid palm oil products and generally understand that animals are vulnerable and deserve respect, etc.)

DysonDad, I'm with Name and Onestonetogo.

And although I've never considered the effects on lives of palm oil production I don't own leather shoes or furniture, nor do I eat meat or eggs and am now planning on going vegan after 30 plus years of vegetarianism. I'm also a dog rescuer and am a volunteer and active campaigner for the same.

Will that suffice for now?

(Swap you a glass of your red for a mediocre Merlot?).

YANBcompletelyU
My take on it is that the CCTV was trained on the cat owners' property therefore all images were completely legal.

I am completely against publishing her name, address and phone numbers as some facebook users have done, that's not on, but I don't think it's U of the owners to publicise what she did, it was vile.

The family cleary felt they needed CCTV for a reason. And if someone dumped my cat I would not give a rats bottom whos civil liberties were being trampled on (beyond the cat's anyways) and would have happily posted on the internet and anywhere else.

Her comment that is was a moment of madness and people are making it worse than it is really pisses me off too. Because the kitten could have died for one. And for two, it was not a moment of madness...cause it was in the bin for 16 hours if the remorse had kicked in she'd have come back and taken it out..and no one would have been the wiser.

Something else -

"1.- (1) If any person--
(a) shall cruelly beat, kick; ill-treat, over-ride, over-drive, over-load, torture, infuriate, or terrify any animal, or shall cause or procure, or, being the owner, permit any animal to be so used, or shall, by wantonly or unreasonably doing or omitting to do any act, or causing or procuring the commission or omission of any act, cause any unnecessary suffering, or,being the owner, permit any unnecessary suffering to be so caused to any animal;"

(Protection of Animals Act 1911).

Yet she has apparently committed no crime?

Then there are other cruelty laws, older still and more recent, not to mention behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace, because she certainly seems guilty of that in some quarters!

namey I always preferred knob. Purely personal preference.

Onestone Depends how you kill them, I guess. Halal/Kosher? Or how you farm them. Sow stalls and veal crates are pretty damn cruel.

But to you both, the main thrust of my point is the level of outrage shown about a cat is so depressing given the lack of outrage shown by most to current/previous human suffering compared to animals. Death threats can never be dismissed as not causing harm.

Anyway, I shall leave the animal lovers in peace now and finish what's left of my drink. At least those poor grapes weren't crushed in vain.

What Val and Sanielle said. Note the X factor sob stories coming out now. Loads of people have family illnesses and don't pick on innocent animals

One parting comment (and no, Valhalla, your Merlot simply will not do! ): of course she has committed no crime. Until a court hands down a verdict she is innocent - another fundamental of our legal system that people have died to uphold. She hasn't even been arrested.

Oh FFS, I've just read of the family illness, thanks jun Spikey.

As they say in Sarf Lundun, you're 'aving a laugh!

So perhaps when this lone mum was diagnosed with cancer, a then close family member was anorexic, self harming and suicidal and her father suffering from emphysema and heart disease she should have had license to commit acts of cruelty to kittens.

That's one of the lamest excuses I've heard in a long time and believe me, as a rescuer, I hear all sorts of pathetic shit excuses.

Hehe, DP just asked me what happened to Cat Woman and I told him...

"Death threats are a bit strong. thinks Hate mail is ok though"