14 DAY TRIAL // Mary Bale from Coventry has been identified as the woman seen on CCTV footage petting a cat and then taking it by the back of the neck and throwing it in a wheelie bin, where it remained for 15 hours. Faced with severe backlash online and an RSPCA investigation, Bale defends herself.
People are seriously exaggerating with this, Bale says of how the footage of her act of cruelty towards an animal has been received (see the video embedded below). She doesn’t hate cats, it was only a joke, she says for The Sun.
The owners of the cat, Lola, found her 15 hours after she’d gone missing, when they saw the footage recorded by cameras. They rescued the cat, which has not sustained any injuries, and went to Facebook to ask for help to identify the woman.
In almost no time, her identity was established – which is when death threats also started to come in. Moreover, a group of Facebook was formed asking for Bale to be murdered for her gesture.
A gesture that she describes as a “joke” in her first interview since the scandal went online a few days ago. In fact, the woman can’t even understand why the outrage, saying that, at the end of the day, “it’s just a cat.”
“I really don’t see what everyone is getting so excited about – it’s just a cat. 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,” Bale explains.
As for her gesture of lifting the lid of the garbage bin and throwing the cat in, she can’t explain it. “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,” she says.
“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. 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,” Bale adds.
As for why she appears on the footage to look furtively to the sides before tossing the cat in, she says that’s open to interpretations. It was just a joke and it was unfortunate that it got out, but that’s not to say she deserves the hatred coming her way right now.
Aside from being on the verge of being investigated by the RSPCA, Bale also risks losing her job at the Royal Bank of Scotland, while she lives in fear for her safety, having already alerted the authorities to offer her increased protection.
In a gesture that is nothing short of admirable, the owners of the cat have returned online, urging animal lovers not to harm the woman in any way because that would be also wrong.
“To think someone near us could do this sends chills down my spine. For her to say it was a joke is disgusting. Now the police know who she is, I think people should leave it to them and the RSPCA to deal with it. I don’t like her, but I don’t want her to get hurt,” Stephanie says.