Mary Bale, a cat in a bin and a little perspective

Mary Bale

Mary Bale – seen on video dumping a cat into a wheelie bin – has aroused the fury of the internets. A Facebook group called “Death to Mary Bale” has sprung into existence wherein the charming correspondants make such enlightened comments as these:

Anoop Ghale Ara weighs in to note:

MARY BALE IS A SAD OLD SPINSTER WHO LIVES WITH HER MOTHER, HER SEXUAL FRUSTRATION AND LACK OF A MAN PROBABLY MADE HER DO THIS COS SHE IS A BITTER TWISTED FAT UGLY CUNT THAT LOOKS LIKE A MAN ANYWAY, DEATH TO MARY BALE.

Tim Heath adds:

This woman should be thrown in a pit and stoned to death

Kirsty Williams thoughtfully adds to the debate:

kill mary, shes obviously a trans-gender bender, evil bitch needs to die of cancer slowly

Rabar Hamad, makes all of this a bit more practical by posting her address, phone number and place of work.

Which was nice. I very much hope he’s never done anything wrong.

There’s a few pages of this shit.

I don’t have a problem with the concept of animal rights, per se. I’d very much like to live in a world where people don’t put cats in bins, or throw dogs off cliffs, or drown parrots, or overheat alpacas, or eloctrocute bears or hang elephants.

I do, however, have a problem with a rump of people who can’t make a proportionate response to something like this.  Their point of identification is with the cat instead of with a person. I find that odd and slightly worrying.

Imagine a train hurtling down a track that splits into two. On one track there is this cat, and on the other there is Mary Bale. In the middle is a set of points and by moving the lever one way or the other you can choose which way the train goes and thus who is killed and who survives.

Would you really want to be friends with – or employ – someone who who would choose to save the cat over the woman? And if you would, what do you think that would say about you and your relationship to your fellow humans?

This could be one of the worst aspects of social media – the freedom to chuck around death threats in this way. I have myself in the past called for Gordon Brown to be hung and mutilated and I kind of regret doing that now – for even though it was in jest, and even though Gordon Brown was a terrible steaming dungpile of a Prime Minister and an outright cunt it’s not really a thought you should give public rein to.

People have been driven to suicide through Facebook bullying and some have set up groups glorifying in their ‘achievements’. If you’re thinking about joining the hype about Mary Bale – who is a real person, with friends and family who care about her and about whose life and history and background you know nothing, then think about that.

And if you don’t, you should be stoned to death.