Thu, 26 Aug 2010 9:40a.m.
By Kim Chisnall
Ever had the urge to throw a cat into a wheelie bin?
No, me neither. But Coventry spinster Mary Bale was caught doing just that on a CCTV camera.
In the video Ms Bale stops to pat the cat and then glancing behind her she spots the bin. She looks up and down the street, clearly making sure she's not being watched, before lifting the lid and dumping tabby cat Lola inside. Closing the lid, Ms Bale walks quickly away.
It was 15 hours before Lola was discovered by her owners Darryl and Stephanie Andrews-Mann. The couple installed a CCTV camera two years ago after their car was repeatedly knocked by careless drivers. When they checked the tape they discovered just how Lola got into the bin.
They posted the video on facebook and soon Ms Bale was identified. She's been questioned by the RSPCA and will possibly face animal cruelty charges.
In animal loving groups, Bale is now a figure of hate. She's received death threats and a "Death to Mary Bale" Facebook page has been removed. She is currently under police protection.
What possessed the 45-year-old bank worker to do this? In a statement Ms Bale says she can't explain it, that it was completely out of character and amounted to a split second of misjudgement.
She told The Sun newspaper that it was a joke. Really Ms Bale? You were walking down the street by yourself, nobody saw you do it, you weren't egged on by your mates. Somehow I just can't see her walking away chuckling to herself.
In the six years I've been working as a journalist it's the cases of animal cruelty that I remember the most. Fresh out of journalism school, I was working at the Marlborough Express when I got a call from the SPCA. They'd discovered a puppy that had been beaten to death and left on the roadside. I took a photographer with me, but there was no way we could put the picture of that poor animal in the paper. Nevertheless, the officer insisted that I took a good long look. I can still see the tiny scrap of a dog, covered in blood on the concrete floor of the pound.
Then there was the Huntly cat killings. Two teenagers who poured highly flammable glue on to three feral cats and then flicked a lighter. The cats were caught in a council trap so there was no escape. Like Ms Bale their act was caught on CCTV and the two teenagers were sentenced to nine months in prison for aggravated cruelty to animals.
I was in court the day they pleaded guilty. Remorse was in short supply; they swaggered in and began gesturing and posturing for the camera. They were smiling and laughing to each other like it was all one big joke.
Maybe that's why I got so annoyed when I heard Ms Bale justify her behaviour as a "joke". A three-year-old child might think it's funny to pull the wings off a butterfly, but then they don't know any better. At 45, Mary Bale is a bit old for that excuse.