I'm almost feeling sorry for the spiteful bint considering the acres of media coverage her heartlessness has engendered. None of the fantasy punishments proposed on the web - 'spray her with BBQ sauce and throw her into a den of lions at the zoo' was particularly imaginative - will match the social stigma she is likely to experience from now on.
But then, on the other hand, she may conceivably become a cause célèbre. Yes, seriously.
See, from what I've read, seen, and heard today, her actions seem to have lifted another lid. That being the one normally keeping a swathe of righteous apologists, anti-cat bigots, and outright crazies in their box.
BBC radio today asked if our country is still a nation of animal lovers. Some of the replies - before the identity of this woman was known - were remarkable.
First came the apologists. Lining up a classic straw man was a texter who pointed to a member of his family with 'mental health problems', before launching into a tirade about how this poor woman must be feeling now that some irresponsible bastard had posted the video on the internet. It was automatically assumed she must have exactly those problems (without asking the question as to whether she should be out if her behaviour could be so erratic) and, as such, was therefore the wronged party.
Never mind that something pretty anti-social had been committed, the person who publicised the video was at fault.
Then came the cat-haters. In language strangely reminiscent to readers of this blog, cats were now smelly, filthy, selfish and dangerous. Some even classified them as vermin. She was probably fed up with the cat shitting in her garden so was justified (another straw man). It was the owner who was at fault.
On Facebook, someone piped up from the US that it was illegal to allow cats to roam outside [citation needed] and that, again, it was the owners' fault. The same was mentioned on the radio, where a woman phoned in to say that cats being kept house-bound was "an issue which should be looked at".
Eh?
Wasn't this a case of a woman doing something rather cruel? Who was (unusually) caught out, and should face the consequences so as to, you know, discourage others from even dreaming of doing anything similar? How did she become the good
Well, because selfishness in the face of the legal behaviour of others is now encouraged; because there are far too many in the UK whose very first response is to make excuses for anti-social behaviour (an army of Lord Longfords); and because the public seem to have been conditioned to the only solution to minor problems being wildly over-reactive legislation.
Since all this, it's emerged that she hasn't got mental health issues, the cat wasn't shitting in her garden, and she's apparently a cat-lover so really hasn't got much of an excuse. But ...
... her Dad is in hospital, so off we go again.
Altogether now - How dare that couple put the video on Facebook!
