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.

Well, I do prefer nob for an insult.

There is more outrage at the supposed outrage than actual, meaningful, original outrage - don't you think?

I wouldn't eat Halal meat but I think animals killed in this way very likely go through less suffering than the cat did.

ARGH! But she SHOULD have been arrested! There is a clear case to answer DysonDad.

Btw, you're a meanie!

DysonDad, I disapprove of Halal and Kosher methods of slaughter and if it was down to me they'd be banned.

Yes, there are worse crimes being committed every day, so what? Doesn't make this random act of cruelty acceptable in any way.

Like hoovers do ya? Hmmm?

Name, I'm sad to say that animal slaughter be it Halal, Kosher or the standard accepted English method with a captive bolt gun is unspeakbaly cruel and aside from the distress and fear factor often death is far from instantaneous.

Doesn't take 15 hours though does it Val?

I am prepared to accept that the slaughtering process is probably painful and distressing for animals. However, it is usually very quick, and I can live with that.

I could never condone cruel and calculated mistreatment of any animal. I don't think this woman really thought it would be funny and I don't think she had a moment of madness either. She checked to see if anyone was watching ffs.

So there was no outrage anywhere DysonDad about Baby Peter, Victoria Climbie or the lads who tortured and nearly killed the cousins in doncaster? Or Venables and Thompson, or Ian Huntley, or Roy Whiting...

spikeycow Not my chosen brand, no. But I do like a well-engineered domestic appliance - after all I've got to use it!

Vallhala Not mean so much as realistic about the logistics.

And if there was a clear case to answer why did the police say there wasn't when the owners show the footage before they decided to publish it?

Anyway, as I know you've guessed I am not and will never condone any wanton cruelty to animals. The chickens in our garden will vouch for me. My point is not that this wasn't a bad thing to do, but that the outrage expressed is out of proportion given that it was a domesticated animal and given the cruelty meted out to humans day in and day out whilst many turn a blind eye. Surely we can all agree that we should all be just as outraged, no more so, about child cruelty, domestic violence and other things that happen behind closed doors? Sadly most people don't seem to feel as strongly.

Oh and I used to work with a Vegan who owned 4 dogs. She refused to give them meat. I thought that was a bit unfair. I was always worried they might take a chunk out of her in desperation!

Agent Thank you for proving my point. There was just as much outrage in the Bulger case and some of the others you mentioned. Some there was much less. Surely there should have been more outrage for them, or less for the cat.

I don't think you can measure peoples expression of how they feel about different...I would say tragedies, but the cat wasn't a tragedy, although I get that you're saying it's being treated as one.

I've thought the same thing when I see adverts on telly for animal charities and then seen one for Great Ormand Street or NSPCC, how can people give to the RSPCA when children are being abused?

But there are enough people to have the capacity to worry and care for children and animals.

I wouldn't want to live in a society where children or animals welfare was ignored.

Agree, Agent, we shouldn't ignore either but when the chips were down I would hope that prevention of child cruelty would be prioritised in financial and emotional terms over animal cruelty.

I am also kind of skeptical about the owner's accounts of how long the cat had been there. In one place it said that the man had got it out, in another place it said the woman did.

But maybe that's just the press making things up or misreporting.

I just feel very uneasy about the whole thing... and feel that there is going to be some bad things happening to her.

Its articles like this one that make me sad about the woman too.

When on earth was it a requirement for bankers to be 'trusted'?? Its laughable really, considering everything else that's going on in the world today!

What Vallhala and Spikey and others have said.

I agree that there are certainly more heinous crimes taking place in the world. I also think that that does not excuse this woman's actions.

Several completely different issues here.

First should this woman have deliberately put a cat into a recycling bin, where she would have known it would be unable to escape, lack food or water and quite conceivably have died either from dehydration or from being crushed when the bins were picked up. Obviously not. It was a totally cruel and senseless act.

Secondly should the police have acted when the couple brought the film to them? That's more difficult. It's probably reasonable to say that they had higher priorities.

Thirdly should the couple have put their CCTV recording on their Facebook account? I can totally see why they did, and I can see why their friends passed it on too. If someone did something I considered terrible and I had some way of catching them and bringing them to justice then I'd try it too. Of course it wasn't a "nice" thing to do, but why on earth would the couple in question want to be nice?

Finally should the media have made quite such a big deal about it? I can see why they reported on it. A bizarre little bit of film that was likely to interest a very large amount of people, just the sort of thing editors like. Baying for blood is a little extreme, but it was such an obviously calculated act (enticing the cat, looking about and then stuffing it in the bin and marching off) in such an ordinary street by such an ordinary looking person that I think it resonated with a lot of people.

As for the bank, well I doubt very much they want to be associated with this person, and given that she is in a customer facing role at a branch I can see why they might be wanting to consider her future with them. As to whether they can sack her or not I guess depends on what her contract and their policies say counts as a sackable offense.

Lots of people do stupid/cruel things, get caught out and then face the consequences.

The cat DIDN'T deserve what happened to it.
M Bales DOES deserve what happens to her.

Simples.

The main laws surrounding the use of CCTV are contained within the Data Protection Act 1998 but these do not cover domestic residences. It is perfectly legal for a resident to install CCTV (even with recording and playback capabilities) and, in the normal course of events, this will be done to protect one?s own property against the threat of intruders and trespassers.

I'm not convinced that I wouldn't post it on the internet if it was my cat either. I would have been furious and want this person found and not really think through the possible negative consequences, so I can understand why the owners did this.

YANBU however, the punishment she is now recieving most definitely does not fit the crime.

YANBU, I was really shocked at what she did when I saw it. Went all the "what if the cat had died?" way. But then I realised that in comparison to the rest of the news, in perspective, binning a cat is not good but calling a mob on the woman is not proportionned to the act or justified.I think she should be given some community work to do though.

WRT to CCTV I do think that you need to somewhere have some sign saying that CCTV is in action, but there is nothing that I know of that says the person committing the offence has had to read it prior to the offence. A defence saying "there was a sign but my client did not read it" would not be valid I thnk.

The cat hoods say - "don't start no shit, won't be no shit."

The law is the law. You can't say 'oh, what this person did isn't too bad compared to what this person did so we'll just turn a blind eye'. Being a criminal isn't like sitting a competitive examination!

In the great scheme of things, this woman's actions were fairly minor. But it was still very disturbing. She was intentionally cruel to an innocent creature and I think the law should be applied accordingly.

I don't condone witch-hunts, and I don't condone threats of violence. But I do wish that appropriate justice would be meted out to those who break the law.

YABU. I'm more stressed than I could ever have imagined right now, been through more (serious problems that are ongoing) lately than in a soap, am also 23 weeks pregnant and getting married in 2 weeks time but I wouldn't do that to a poor cat or any other animal. She looked around before doing it, she knew what she was doing and I find it disgusting.

Psammed, I agree with you that she should be brought to justice but "lock the b... in a bin" attitude that a lot of peple had is not justice. It is that kind of thing that I would refere to as "overreacting". I do not think anyone is saying she should not be accountable for what she did. A sentence of any kind (community work, a fine, days in prison...)should be done through the proper justice channel though, not a lynch mob.

(It is exactly what you said but I think it needs repeating)

Tweetymum, I agree with you. She is clearly very odd, but she has been publicly humiliated and judged and demonised... Millions of people out there are equally odd and have escaped judgment. It doesn't seem quite right.

Cheese - the (cat) homeboys/girls agree with you sister.