Cat bin dumping woman fined for cruelty offence

A woman filmed dumping a cat in a wheelie bin has been fined £250 after admitting a cruelty offence. The RSPCA charged Mary Bale after CCTV cameras showed her throwing four-year-old Lola into a bin outside her owners' home in Coventry. Bale, 45, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a cat. A charge of not providing the cat with a suitable environment was dropped. The judge said she had taken Bale's vilification into account.

District judge Caroline Goulborn said the potential for harm to the cat had been "substantial" but the reality was she had not been hurt. "The media interest in this case has resulted in you being vilified in some quarters and I have taken that into account," she said. Coventry Magistrates Court also heard that Bale's elderly father had been gravely ill at the time and that he had since died. "I accept you were in a stressful situation at the time, but that's no excuse for what you did," Judge Goulborn said.



Earlier, Nick Sutton, prosecuting on behalf of the RSPCA, said Bale lived three streets away from the cat's owners and did not know them. She had been walking from her mother's home to her own, and had often stopped to stroke Lola, he said. Bale's solicitor David Murray said his client could offer no explanation for her actions in Brays Lane in August. "Miss Bale, daily, almost hourly, for the past two months has asked herself that very question," he said.

He added that she was suffering from anxiety and depression and had resigned from her job after 27 years. Outside court, he said Bale "bitterly regretted" what she had done. "Despite a lengthy period of soul-searching she cannot still explain her behaviour and wishes to again repeat her apology to the owners of Lola. She has received hate-mail, abusive telephone messages and death threats," Mr Murray said. In addition to the fine Bale was ordered to pay costs of £1,171 and banned from keeping or owning animals for the next five years.

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