A woman who caused international outrage by dumping a cat in a wheelie bin has insisted she did it as a "joke". Mary Bale enraged animal lovers around the world after she was caught on CCTV grabbing four-year-old rescue cat Lola by the scruff of the neck and tossing her in a bin. The 45-year-old was offered police protection after her actions prompted angry online campaigns - including one called "catch the evil b**** who put the cat in the bin".
 
Many wrote threatening messages after viewing the footage, and she faces a possible RSPCA prosecution. Lola was trapped for 15 hours before her owners Stephanie and Daryll Mann heard her cries outside their home in Coventry. They found her in a terrified state, sitting in the bin in her own mess.
 
But bank worker Ms Bale said she does not know what all the fuss is about. adding: "It's just a cat." She told The Sun: "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.
 
"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 of the bin." Ms Bale admitted she "shouldn't have done it" but added that she did not deserve the hatred of people around the world.
 
Lola's owner Stephanie Mann has appealed for calm and urged people not to take "matters into their own hands". The 24-year-old said: "I can't believe the reaction to the story. I only posted it on Facebook because I wanted to see who she was.
 
"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." Ms Bale fears she may now lose her job as a customer services assistant at the Royal Bank of Scotland.
 
She said: "I've had my boss ringing to ask me what's going on, and I've had to talk to the bank's security people about what to do if people who think I hurt the cat try to find me. "Everything has gone crazy because of a stupid spur-of-the-moment thing I did - but I know I only have myself to blame.
 
"I wish I'd never set eyes on the cat. But what I'm really worried about at the moment is my father who is not very well in hospital." Ms Bale's mother Celia claimed her daughter "loves cats".
 
She said: "She absolutely adores animals - this doesn't make sense. Her father Maurice is in hospital very ill and I think she was just in a world of her own." West Midlands Police said Ms Bale was not arrested because she had not committed a criminal offence - and the matter would be dealt with by the RSPCA.
 
A spokeswoman for the RSPCA told Sky News Online its officers would interview Ms Bale shortly. She said an inspector would write a case file on her and send it to the prosecution department, which would decide whether to charge her.
 
 
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