Woman Hunted for Binning Cat

A woman who dumped a cat into a bin is reportedly being guarded by police after cat-loving Internet vigilantes began threatening her and a mob descended upon her home.

The 45-year-old woman was spotted stroking the cat on the street outside its London home – then she picked it up by the scruff of its neck and dropped it in a nearby bin, closing the lid.

The cat’s human later discovered the trapped cat mewling in the bin 15 hours later – initially he thought the cat might have found her own way into the bin:

“I thought she might have got in herself – she’s not the brightest cat.”

Wondering what happened, he inspected his CCTV recordings – he had installed a camera after his car was vandalised – and soon found the cat had been binned.

Naturally, he uploaded the video onto the Internet in an effort to find the perpetrator, creating a “Help Find The Woman Who Put My Cat In The Bin” Facebook group which soon helped identify the woman.

Soon police, animal rights groups and of course Internet vigilantes and the national media became involved, with death threats being made against the woman whilst a mob gathered outside her house, her address being widely circulated.

Facebook also deleted another group calling for the woman’s death, as it contravened their terms of service.

Speaking to the media, the woman was initially unrepentant:

“I really don’t see what everyone is getting so excited about – it’s just a cat.

I don’t know what came over me, but I suddenly thought it would be funny to put it in the wheelie bin, which was right beside me.”

She later issued a public apology, saying she had made a “misjudgement” for which she was “profoundly sorry.”

Reportedly police officers were sent to guard her, but police insist their officers are not “guarding” the woman, but are instead merely observing the mob outside her house:

“Community support officers are outside the woman’s address monitoring a large group of people – most of them from the media – for public order purposes as per routine police procedure.”

Police did however concede that they are now “closely monitoring” the large number of threats made against the cat dumper’s personal safety.

Lola is said to be unaffected by her time in the bin:

“She’s fine. She’s very tired obviously with everything that’s being going on, but other than that she’s fine.”

Lola’s human was however alarmed by the aggressive reactions of people with nothing better to do than engage in histrionics over the fate of a cat temporarily trapped in a plastic box:

“I can’t believe the reaction to the story.

I only posted it on Facebook because I wanted to see who she was. Now that the police know who she is, I think people should leave it to them and the RSPCA and not take matters into their own hands.

Whatever she has done, I don’t like her, but I don’t want her to get hurt. It needs to be dealt with properly, not by people getting aggressive with her.”

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is due to talk to the woman, whilst police have said that animal cruelty charges could result from her vicious act of cat abuse.