Woman Who Threw Cat in Trash Can Caught

Thanks to the powers of viral video, a British woman who unceremoniously dumped a cat in a garbage can has been caught. Mary Bale became an Internet villain after the cat’s owners posted security video of her first petting Lola, then dropping her into the trash can for no apparent reason. Lola was recovered—alive—15 hours later, and police identified Bale, who is being investigated by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the New York Times reports.

Angry people have gathered outside Bale’s house, police say, but Bale doesn’t know “what the fuss is about,” she tells the Daily Mail. “It’s just a cat.” Her mother insists Bale “loves animals” and that “she can’t explain why she did it,” but Bale herself had no trouble giving the Mail an explanation: “I did it as a joke because I thought it would be funny. I never thought it would be trapped, I expected it to wriggle out.”
(More Mary Bale stories.)