Cat in the Trash Bin

Folks may have seen the story about the woman in Coventry, England who threw her neighbor’s four year old cat into a trash bin as a “joke.”  After first responding to the subsequent uproar with “It’s just a cat,” the woman has since “apologized profusely” for her “lapse in judgment.”
News reports have quoted the woman as saying the decision to put the cat in the trash bin was a spur of the moment decision and she thought the cat would be able to get out.  The cat’s owners were looking and calling for it when they heard the meows and followed them to the trash bin where they were able to rescue the cat after fifteen hours.  The owners had a video security system that caught the actions of their neighbor who was identified after the tape was put on YouTube and Facebook.

It appears that people either like cats or they don’t.  Unlike dogs, cats have an independence that some folks just don’t want to deal with.  Now granted, a cat with a full set of claws can do some damage to carpeting and cloth covered furniture but then dogs can do some fair amount of damage to furniture with chewing on everything in sight.

Fortunately, most cats and dogs are not able to do a lot of damage to things like garage doors.  Most garage doors are too heavy and too much metal for the dog or the cat to do much damage.  There are older garage doors of course that might have damage that allows a cat to sneak in and out.  The garage and garage door of today in some areas has replaced the barn and barn door of yesterday, a place for outdoor cats to hide and maybe have their litters.

Yet people will still abuse the cats and dogs similar to how this woman did, without thinking of the consequences to the animal or themselves.  She is cooperating with the RSPCA and the local police so it appears is taking responsibility for her actions.  Unfortunately, there are also cat lovers who have threatened her so the police have to protect her home.

So now there are compounding wrongs.  It was wrong to put the cat in the trash bin in the first place but it is just as wrong to threaten the woman who did this.  The cat and its owners are reunited and the cat is probably being pampered with love and treats to help it overcome the ordeal.  Most likely the cat will stay around the house for the foreseeable future and stay close to her human companions.