CONVICTED (2010) | Mary Elizabeth Bale, born 15/06/1965, of St Michaels Road, Coventry CV2 4EJ – recorded on video stroking a four-year-old tabby cat named Lola before picking her up by the scruff of her neck and dropping her into a wheelie bin.
The RSPCA charged Mary Bale after CCTV cameras showed her throwing four-year-old Lola into a bin outside her owners’ home in Coventry.
The former bank worker pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to a cat. A charge of not providing the cat with a suitable environment was dropped.
Bale’s actions sparked outrage when Lola’s owner Darryl Mann posted the footage on the internet.
He found Lola after she had been in the bin for 15 hours, then checked his security camera video to see what had happened.
Within hours, angry messages had been posted online and later a Facebook page reportedly calling for Bale’s death, was removed.
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.
Bale’s solicitor David Murray said his client could offer no explanation for her actions.
He added that she was suffering from anxiety and depression and had resigned from her job after 27 years.
Speaking after the case, RSPCA inspector Nicky Foster said the costs order and the ban would act as a deterrent to others.
“She (Bale) said in court that she doesn’t know why she has done it, so she has no excuse.”
Ms Foster said Lola had been extremely lucky to come out unharmed.
Sentence: total of £1400 fines, costs and charges. Banned from keeping or owning animals for five years (expired October 2015).