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Facebook Cat Abuse Lady Enters Protective Custody Over Net Outrage

by Terrence O'Brien on August 25, 2010 at 10:10 AM

Cat In the Garbage
Like many of those who live and die by the Internet, Switched staffers are often entertained by the feline antics flooding the Web. This story, it should be said, is particularly heinous, and not at all in line with 'cats in boxes' or whatever else might be our YouTube search du jour. As Coventry, England resident Mary Bale walked down the streets of her hometown not long ago, she encountered an adorable kitty -- and, apparently quite mistakenly, the owner's closed-circuit security camera. The cat, a mackerel tabby, is caught on film as a particularly affectionate type, enjoying a couple back-scratches from Bale. Then, without any obvious provocation, Bale opens the lid of a nearby garbage can, tosses the kitty (named Lola) inside, and walks away.

As our Design Editor once rescued a discarded kitten from the foul fate of garbage can abandonment, we simply do not stand for cats in trash. Thankfully, neither do Lola's owners, who posted the video on YouTube and started a Facebook page titled "Help Find the Woman Who Put My Cat in the Bin" (Ed. note: the page appears to have been taken down). Within days, the video had racked up hundreds of thousands of hits as well as tens of thousands of "likes" on Facebook. The woman was eventually identified, and, fearing for her safety, the police have had to put her in protective custody. The RSPCA is currently investigating the incident, but it doesn't appear there is any crime with which Bale can be charged. For the record, Lola is fine after a 15-hour ordeal, although her owners are quite perplexed as to what could have possibly possessed anyone to trap a cat in the garbage. As for our editor's garbage-cat, her name is Kitten, and she's a lovely, if skittish, tortoiseshell tabby.

Tags: animal cruelty, AnimalCruelty, Cats, facebook, Facebook protests, FacebookProtests, mary bale, MaryBale, top, viral video, ViralVideo, web, youtube

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