This story broke a few days ago and upon reading the initial reports in the early hours of the morning, I secretly hoped that fourchan or some other online vigilante group would get involved.

For those of you that came in late, so the story goes that Stephanie and Darryl Mann found their cat Lola sealed in a rubbish bin. The couple heard Lola meowing from the bin and came to her rescue.

Luckily the Mann household was equipped with a video security system and upon watching security footage, the couple witnessed one of the most brazen acts of animal cruelty I’ve ever seen.

Watch the footage for yourself;



What you’re looking at there is footage showing that fifteen hours before Lola was found, a middle aged woman walked by the Mann’s property, stroked Lola for a few seconds, calmly dumped her into the rubbish bin and then closed the lid and walked away as if nothing had happened.

In a bid to find the sick individual responsible, the Mann’s published their home security footage on Youtube in the hope that she would be tracked down.

Less then 24 hours later, the internet delivered.

The RSPCA were allegedly the first to uncover the mystery animal abuser but refused to go public with her identity. Nonetheless the police were notified and fearing public backlash offered the woman protection.

A short time later she was publicly named and shamed online as Mary Bale, a bank clerk from Coventry.

With her identity unmasked and insults and death threats flying left right and centre from all over the world, Mary’s mother, Celia came to her rescue. Celia insisted that

She’s my daughter and as far as I’m concerned she is the most caring person you could ever wish to meet. She loves cats.

She absolutely adores cats, she’s an animal lover, it just doesn’t make sense.


What?! Sorry but the only thing that doesn’t make sense is trying to claim Mary Bale loves cats. In the video footage you can clearly see her looking around to make sure nobody’s around before throwing Lola into the bin.

This is someone who knows what she’s doing is wrong and simply doesn’t care.

In response to the criticism levelled against her after she was identified, Bale stated

I really don’t see what everyone is getting so excited about – it’s just a cat.

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.


‘Just a cat?’ Yeah, clearly Mary Bale is someone who loves animals. Obviously she’s failed to realise the impact of her actions and nor does Bale appear to have any remorse or understanding of animal cruelty.

Despite the video footage and public outcry however, amazingly no arrest has been made yet. Police are claiming that ‘Ms Bale (has) not committed a crime‘.

Meanwhile the Animal Welfare Act of 2006 section 4 clearly states that

A person commits an offence if—

(a)an act of his, or a failure of his to act, causes an animal to suffer,

(b)he knew, or ought reasonably to have known, that the act, or failure to act, would have that effect or be likely to do so,

(c)the animal is a protected animal, and

(d)the suffering is unnecessary.


Seeing as the Act’s definition for a protected animal is simply ‘a vertebrate other than man‘, I’d this obviously covers cats.

Clearly the woman in the video footage is Mary Bale, so check on A.

How anyone could not know that putting a cat into a wheelie bin is going to cause it to suffer is beyond me, so check again on B.

Cats are a vertebrae so easily a check on C and the suffering incurred by someone putting a cat into a wheelie is obviously unnecessary so check on D too.

Now I’m not a detective but clearly this should be simply a case of

‘hi, are you Mary Bale?’

‘why yes.’

‘Is this you in this video?’

‘why yes’

‘right, off to jail with you then.’

The maximum penalty for breaching the Animal Welfare Act is up to 51 weeks of imprisonment or a fine of 20,000 pounds. Hell in this occasion I don’t see why they couldn’t enforce both.

Whether you’re a dog person or a cat person is irrelevant here. What we have is a clear case of animal abuse in which the perpetrator shows absolutely no regard for animal welfare by disposing of  a cat in a rubbish bin.

There is no ambiguity about the  suspects identity, she’s been recorded on video footage committing the act and according to the Animal Welfare Act there’s definitely a case to answer for.

So what are you waiting for England, haul this sorry excuse for a woman’s arse in already!

In a world where too much animal cruelty goes unreported this is one woman we can make an example of. If not, then what bloody hope do the rest of the animal kingdom have?



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