The woman who became an internet villain after You Tube video of her dumping a tabby cat into a trash bin and closing the can's lid to the "garbage" has been sentenced, sort of—"Britain's most hated woman" Mary Bale has been fined to just £250 (US $400) and banned from keeping a pet for five years after abusing the feline.
David Murray, attorney for Mary Bale--the 45-year-old English woman identified on video as throwing the tabby cat “Lola” into the garbage says, "she has received hate mail, abusive telephone messages and death threats" related to the animal abuse scandal. Bale’s sentence after pleading guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a cat, comes to about four hundred bucks. The additional legal charge, of not providing the cat with a suitable environment, has been dropped from England courts.
England’s streets contain an undisclosed number of cameras (CCTV ) located throughout towns and cities—many operated by the government. After a relatively quick identification, Bale became dubbed as "Britain's most hated woman"—probably not adding to the depression she claims she was suffering prior to throwing the tabby into the trash. Mary Bale even had to be placed under Britain’s police protection after being identified in the CCTV video posted—and highly circulated—via bothYouTube and Facebook websites. Abused cat “Lola”, in the meantime, found his release from the trash bin after about 15 hours, when the cat’s owners finally heard the desperate meows.
Irate at having their beloved pet dumped into a garbage bin, “Lola’s” human owners Stephanie and Darryl Andrews-Mann took to the internet to find their culprit, posting CCTV video footage that had been taken by cameras installed nearby their home. Bale was identified quickly to the Andrews-Mann owners—living only half of a mile from the cat owners’ residence--but, interestingly, Mary Bale was not arrested by England authorities. Despite the fact that things could easily have turned fatal for the cat—more likely from an unknowing trash pickup than time spent in the bin—England had a bit of a time with the unusual set of circumstances.
The “woman dumps cat in garbage bin” You Tube video went so viral that Facebook groups sprung up overnight: Facebook itself was forced to issue statement on the controversy, the social networking site’s spokesperson stating: "We can't comment on individual cases for privacy reasons but I can tell you that one group, entitled Death to Mary Bale, has been removed today."
Despite public outrage over what was deemed by most as animal cruelty or abuse with the cat-dumping incident, England doesn’t have a law barring deposit of a cat into a trash bin. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) was not happy—but it took a bit for actual action to be taken against Bale.
Bale’s response to the cat-dumping controversy seemed to indicate that the woman’s suffering from depression might be one of the lesser problems:
"I really don't see what everyone is getting so excited about. It's just a cat," Bale said. "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. I did it as a joke because I thought it would be funny. I never thought it would be trapped. I expected it to wriggle out of the bin."
Mary Bale also issued statement saying: ""People are reading too much into things. I've no feelings about cats one way or the other. I don't keep pets myself, but I have no problem with people who do.”
The video—at least—didn’t quite seem to prove the idea that Bale has “no feelings about cats one way or the other.”
"To think this [garbage trash bin] video is being seen around the world [on You Tube and distributed via Facebook] is unbelievable,” said Mary Bale. I'm a very private person and don't want to upset any members of my family. I don't know what my relatives will think, but to be honest I think everyone's overreacting a bit…OK, I shouldn't have done it [put “Lola” into the garbage can], but it's just a cat at the end of the day. I don't think I deserve to be hated by people all over the world, it was just a split second of madness."
A “split second” that turned into 15 hours for “Lola”—and lives two through nine.