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!

although i agree with the fact that there are worse things happening around us, the woman could not have escaped prosecution. animal cruelty is against the law, what she did was cruel and tbh the amount of attention she got she couldn't have been let go. millions of people saw her commit a crime, there was no evidence to prove it wasn't her.

if someone who commits a crime (and what she did was a crime, albeit not a massive one) and can be punished they should be punished.

im saying this and im a cat owner.

i can believe that there would be a hell of an uproar if she didn't get some kind of punishment. hopefully she'll get some sort of help as well, i would imagine she has some problems :(

No, my organic meat is from waitrose and fed on green pastures

misdee- who dunnit?

The fact that the cat didn't die is irrelevant surely? It could easily have done so.

I'm not pro Cat murder in a grim way but what about the stress and suffering caused by the 5 cats that crap all over our garden all the time despite all our attempts and expensive deterrants?

Why is that ok for your ickle cats to crap all over my garden?!

I genuinely could never have a cat because of that. I think it is unacceptable to be responsible for a creature who uses other people's property as a toilet.

No one will answer me because it IS indefensible. dh and I both said, who cares? One Less Cat shitting in everyone's gardens!

if the owners were looking for the cat for hours, presumably Mary had plenty of time to have second thoughts/realised the potential consequences of what she had done & gone back & freed the cat. She didn't. I wonder what compelled her? Humans can be very nasty indeed.

I understand it was 16hrs later, as the bin was at the front of the house there was a very real possibility that the cat could have ended up in a rubbish truck which would have been pretty horrifying for the animal, the owners and the poor bin man.

However, above all I stand by my original point, anything high profil like this has to be acted on or it is seen as "permission" and that is not acceptable.

I am allergic to cats, I accept this may cloud my view

My cat doesn't crap on your garden longstocking-it's housecat.

Shall we start up about dogs shitting on pavements now and how when a dog gets knocked over it's one less to shit all over the park ?

YAB VVVVV U!

She threw a living creature into a bin, closed the lid and for all she knew left it to starve or be crushed by the bin men!!

So thats not worthy of being puniched for?

If i had the time I would put all cats in bins

the hamster was renamed houdini after a while, which should give you some idea of its escapades.

it had escaped from a secure cage. there was no way it physcically could've got out. it was one of those plastic encased cages, with little tunnels and a 'spaceship' bedding area.

one morning we noticed it had escaped. no sign of prision break.

we looked and looked. put the cage down on the floor with the door open and laods of treats inside, hoping it would come back. but after a week, we gave up hope.

But then dh went to get the bucket from the kitchen cupboard. i had used it in the week after the hamster escape btw, so know it wasnt in there from the start.

And peering up at him was a very confused looking hamster.

i think houdini had been scurrying around for food, slipped off a shelf, and fell into the bucket. and ended up trapped due t the slippiness of the bucket.

Sorry for crap typing dd asleep in my arms.

animal cruelty is not acceptable, just because animals can't speak of their abuse or ask for it to be stopped doesn't mean it should be ignored :(

not really the cats fault you're allergic mrsruffallo

and i agree with finding mymOOOOOOOjo

she had so much time to go back and help the cat out, yet she left it there. makes it more cruel :(

Mrsruffallo, perhaps you could look a little deeper into your organic meat? Trust me being "fed on green pastures" means litle unless there is some kind of underline to that - they could be locked up 23.5hrs per day and let out on some kind of rotation and be counted as "fed on green pastures". Waitrose may be fab () but you would be far better going to a proper local butcher who raises the meat themselves if you want to play the "I eat good meat" card.

"Bought it from Waitrose" does not make you angelic, just easily bought by marketing.

I love it's 'only a og'

Really, dear, I am not condoning cruelty against animals
I am talking about this specific case

achoo!

I love cats but I don't have one because I live in a huge overcrowded city and the shit and bird killing issues are unreasonable in this environment IMO.

I did think at the time perhaps Mary was simply sick of having her garden crapped all over by every cat in town (having become aware of just how much stress it causes people here on MN), but still she can't prove it was THAT cat and even if she could, the cat is just following instinct - it's the owners she needs to have a beef with.

But where draw the line?

its ok to put cats in bins? is it ok to lock them in cages and leave them to starve?

The only way animal cruelty can be fought against is by prosocuting every single animal abuse case that can be proven - only then will these horrible people think twice about their actions!

This case was clearly animal cruelty - and it was clearly documented with video evidence - something that doesn't happen to often - so why on earth should she get away with it?

But my local butcher is not the kind of man you would buy from believe me.
I do support local business, but that's a chance I am not prepared to take
Waitrose seem ethical http://www.waitrose.com/food/productranges/ingredients/organics.aspx

Wow you have a butcher who raises the meat too?

Mine buys in from local farmers as he's too busy butchering.

Longstocking, yes it is terrible when an animal does what it is designed to do in the places it is designed to do it isn't it? I bet you and dh also get really cross when you go for nice country walks to find cow crap all over the fields don't you? Luckily you will both be working on that problem by eating lots of beef I am sure.

I get it. It's only a cat...

Why on earth waste time prosecuting an act of cruelty?

She... that's she, not "it", she is a sentient being... was only a cat, only in a bin, only unable to get out, only without water or appropriate food, her life was only saved after 16 hours thanks to sheer good fortune.

People with this attitude sicken me. Even if they haven't the heart or brain to realise that such cruelty is a wicked crime which needs deterring even if it cannot be wholly prevented, surely they are aware that animal cruelty often leads to acts of violence towards humans?

And for the record, unlike the OP, who "only" eats organic meat (so that's alright then, it eases her conscience and makes the meat taste a bit better), I don't eat any fish, fowl or flesh.

Yea Longstocking, you beef eating cat hating horrible person

Well done Valhalloween, congratulations on fowl never passing your lips

I think she did a brave thing. No human is allowed to crap all over my garden and get away with it. But any human's ickle cat can shite all day so my kids can never play in the garden til I've gone out and cleared up 5 or 6 steaming stinking turds.

I think this woman represents loads of us who would happily bin every cat that ever crapped in their garden.

No I don't include the housecats at all Thingumy, you are clearly taking responsibility for your cat. Those cats are fine.

But there are a great silent unhappy number of us who hate you for ignoring the crap you are responsible for being shat all over our gardens.

I spent 35 minutes cleaning my dd's shoes the other day because I'd missed a pile. But I guess my needs are not as important as the needs of the owner of that cat.

Don't know how you live with yourselves I really don't!