Perhaps slightly misreading the world’s mood, a 45-year-old British woman caught tossing a cat in a garbage bin has defended her actions as “a joke.”
Mary Bale, a customer service attendant at the Royal Bank of Scotland, has become an object of derision in England and abroad since video of her animal abuse was posted online.
Given the scrutiny she’s under, a semblance of contrition was probably advisable. But Bale has decided on another course. Comments attributed to her today – for instance, “It’s just a cat” – should raise the temperature considerably. A security camera filmed Bale first petting a four-year-old cat named Lola, and then inexplicably dumping the affectionate pet in a nearby bin.
Lola was found 16 hours later by her owners, who then posted the video online in the hopes of catching the culprit. Bale was identified by the press yesterday. As the result of a heated Facebook campaign against her, Coventry police thought it best to station officers outside Bale’s home. The first to speak was Bale’s mother, Celia, who painted her daughter as a cat lover overwhelmed by an illness in the family.
Then Bale waded in and set about the task of holding her own head under the water. “I really don’t see what everyone is getting so excited about – it’s just a cat,” Bale told the Sun. “I was walking home from work and saw this cat wander out in front of me. “I was playing with it, stroking it and listening to it purr as it stood on a garden wall. It was very friendly.
“I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly thought it would be funny to put it in the wheelie bin, which was right beside me.” Bale explained that she thought Lola would find her own way out of the bin. “Okay, I shouldn’t have done it – but it’s just a cat, at the end of the day,” Bale said. “I don’t think I deserve to be hated by people all over the world, it was just a split second of madness.
“Cats are good climbers and I assumed it would just scramble out through the lid and go on its way.” Bale faces no criminal charges, but is under investigation by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She will likely be more worried by a slew of death threats posted online.
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