To think it was ridiculous to prosecute Mary Bale aka the cat-in the bin woman?

[mrsruffallo]

What a waste of time. Honestly, look at the world around you and get some perspective!

Where do you stand on animal cruelty generally? Is it just one of those things?

No it wasn't ridiculous. She threw a living, breathing animal in a wheelie bin. If the owner hadn't found it, it would have died a horrible death.

IMO She got off lightly with a £250 fine.

She should have been prosecuted! What if the cat wasn't found? It would have died a slow and scary death. It isn't "just" a cat. It's a living breathing creature.
Having said that, there are far worse cases over the last few days that I can't even bring myself to read about.

YABU.

She caused huge stress to a cat and her owners and she deserves all she gets. She still says she doesn't know why she did it and has resigned from her job so she has time to think about it. She is banned from keeping pets for 5 years and fined £1500 including costs.

Serves her right.

Nope, not a waste of time, IMO she had to be prosecuted simply because such a high profile case sets the prescedent for behaviour. Non-prosecution would mean a tactic understanding that this kind of behaviour is ok and it isn't.

By your reckoning the police should be out on the big crimes and not wasting their time on the little ones, but I suspect your perspective would change quickly if your house was broken into and you were told "sorry this simply is not a big enough event to warrent our involvement, we have to target the big things these days".

Animal cruelty should quite rightly be prosecuted.

Can't understand why anyone would think otherwise??

Most of the crimes that cause people hassle are 'little' crimes - vandalism, petty theft, antisocial behaviour. Would you say those shouldn't be prosecuted?

YABU

What she did was awful! Yes, much worse things are happening all around us, but if we ignore low level cruelty to animals then we're basically saying we agree with it. And what about other crimes that aren't as severe as the worst? Do we ignore them too?

She was in the wrong - she deserved to be punished.

She put him in a bin and the owners found him. It's a non story. It wasn't nice that she did it but hardly worthy of the outrage and a court case

It was found hours after she'd dumped it in the bin. Hours without food or water and probably extremely frightened and distressed.

I think YABU & she should be punished in some way for what was an unnecessary & cruel act. As for looking at the world around me - well I certainly don't want to see a place where in your face cruelty to animals is ignored cause there's worse stuff going on. By that logic we'd be living in anarchy.

HOWEVER whenever I see comments expressing such concern for all 'living breathing creatures' I always feel a strong desire to take a poll as to how many people who feel this way eat factory farmed eggs, chicken & pork.

Im no animal-lover, but she totally deserved what she got! YABU Im afraid.

I only eat organic meat.

It was purely down to luck that he was found - and with no thanks to the woman in question. I agree it probably wasn't worthy of all the media coverage and hype but I certainly think it's right that she is punished for what she did.

Yes but what was unique about that story in particular was that she was totally busted doing it.

It's not very often people get so perfectly caught in the act doing something quite so strange.

That's what all the fuss was about really. But in any case, since she was caught, it was right that she was prosecuted.

The amount of media coverage and death threats the woman received were ridiculous, yes. But what she did was awful.

It was awful but it's not like she strangled the cat. That I would expect to be prosecuted for

Mrsruffallo - s he would never have been found and never been able to climb out if the owners hadn't looked for him for hours.

He would have starved/ suffocated/ been crushed to death in a rubbish truck.

But you can't see how horrifying that is?

I'm not a mad animal lover either but it's so cruel.

She threw the animal in the bin with intent to harm.

She did not know when and IF the animal would be found alive.

Mrsruffallo, you do reaise that organic meat is just what it is fed not how it is kept? Organic can be just as badly treated as intensivly farmed but fed different food.

i found my hamster in a bucket once.

I am not doubting it was cruel. But worthy of a court case? Dubious

If the cat hadn't been found, she might as well have strangled the poor thing - would have been an easier demise than slowly starving to death in a bin!

Just because the cat was lucky enough to be found doesn't negate what she did.