Poor Mary Bale. The woman who, in a “moment of madness”, dumped a cat in a wheelie bin has been charged with animal cruelty. The RSPCA is prosecuting her with causing unnecessary suffering to a cat and “not providing the animal with a suitable environment”. It would make you giggle if it didn’t have the potential to ruin her life. The woman appears to have led a blameless existence for 45 years and then she did something silly; we’ve all done silly things. She has said she is profoundly sorry. It was an odd thing to do and a little cruel; but odd, too, for the cat’s owners to have security cameras around their house in what looked like an ordinary street. People who love cats often seem to be paranoid and suspicious of human beings.
My cats do far worse things to little voles, mice and even baby birds than Ms Bale did to that cat in the bin. But that’s OK, because it’s “natural”. Among the dozens of rules for owning a cat, introduced in the ridiculous Animal Welfare Act four years ago (“groom” it!?), is making sure your cat is able to “exhibit normal behaviour patterns”. Funnily enough, the RSPCA’s advice on kitties doesn’t extend to explaining that normal behaviour may mean carnage from the natural kingdom appearing on your kitchen floor twice a day.
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