Woman Found Guilty of Cat Cruelty

A WOMAN who was caught on camera, dumping a cat into a wheelie bin has been fined for his cruel actions.

Mary Bale, 45, admitted to a cruelty charge offence this morning at Coventry Magistrates Court.  She has been fined £250 and has also been forced to pay £1,171 in costs.  To compound her misery, she has been banned from keeping or owning animals for the next five years.  However, a second charge of not providing the cat with a suitable environment under the 2006 Animal Welfare Act was dropped.  Consequently, a six-month prison sentence was avoided.

The incident occurred in the early evening of Saturday August 21.  Footage on Brays Lane showed Bale stroking the cat, before picking the four-year old tabby called Lola up by the scruff of the neck.  She then dropped Lola into the bin without any regard for her safety.  Although Lola suffered no physical injury, she was left in the bin for 15 hours.  The cat was discovered by its owner, Darryl Mann the next morning.

Mr Mann, 26, checked the security camera footage, and posted the shocking video onto the Internet.  Within days, the RSPCA were investigating the incident and Bale has become a hated figure globally, with the social networking site Facebook having to remove groups from animal rights lovers calling for her death.  She resigned from her job as a bank worker because of the scandal.

Bale, who was said to be in tears throughout the hearing left court on Tuesday without comment.  She is grieving over the death of her father last Thursday at Coventry’s Walsgrave Hospital.  During an interview in the investigation process, Mary Bale admitted that she had been struggling with depression and coping with her father’s sudden decline in health.  The district judge in this case, Caroline Goulborn told Bale on the sentence: “The media interest in this case has resulted in you being vilified in some quarters, and I have taken that into account.”

To some, it might sound a lenient penalty for such a cruel mistreatment of a pet, but hopefully, this message has been hammered down for all people to look after pets in a responsible manner.

Crufts - Is It Healthy or Wrong?

This weekend, the NEC Arena (now known to some as the LG Arena) played host to the most spectacular dogs show in the world, Crufts 2010.  For the first time in nearly two years, the annual event was shown on our TV screens last night.  Whilst some will have seen Danny Young’s departure from Dancing on Ice on ITV1 or highlights of a snoozy Formula 1 opener on BBC Three, More 4 had won the rights to this colourful event.

Sponsored by the furniture group, DFS, Crufts is in a strong position, maybe stronger than it ever has been, but there are those who won’t agree it is healthy competition, instead it is animal cruelty.  More 4 were the first company to show Crufts, since a controversial BBC documentary on 'Pedigree Dogs Exposed' was screened in the summer of 2008.  Having held the rights to Crufts for ages, the documentary showed disturbing breeding practices of dogs and consequently, saw the BBC scrap its coverage, ending a prestigious relationship.

However, despite no TV deal last year, the event was still declared as a rousing success and the final line-up last night for the hotly-contested Best in Show was very interesting.  All seven finalists were declared fit and healthy to take part, with the award going to a Hungarian dog, called Yogi.  Yogi had won his category ‘Gun Dog’ earlier in the weekend and is a Vizsla breed, so winning the overall show must have been a massive surprise to his overjoyed owner, John Thirlwell. 

Of course, as ever with this type of event, controversy ran over the winner of the ‘German Shepherd’ category.  Experts were dismayed to see that the winner, Clokelly’s Lagos clearly was suffered with poor back legs and ankles.  The chief vet of the event has insisted that he inspected all dogs during the four-day event and insisted that all dogs passed the demanding medical trials.  Others disagree, including the maker of that BBC documentary, Jemima Harrison.  Harrison now campaigns to improve the health of all dogs, and in preventing cruelty, many believe she is a strong believer of the banning of such an event like Crufts.  It is known that all associated bodies, including The Kennel Club and the RSPCA are working closely together to make sure that all dogs are kept to a strict and healthy regime, should they take part in such prestigious competition events, such as Crufts.

The debate of animal cruelty will rumble on and personally, I don’t want to drag myself into such a controversial and hotly-debated topic as animals being harmed.  However, if Crufts disappeared from the event schedule, it would be a major shame.  Crufts is an established and prodigal event for the British and for me, as long as the dogs are all healthy, then I can’t see a problem with such a competition taking place.