When the cat gets out of the online bag
Share
Take one cat, one wheelie bin and one CCTV camera, add the power of the internet and what do you get? The amazing transformation of one ordinary middle-aged lady from Coventry into "the most hated woman in Britain" - a story that has dominated the UK media for the last week.
The media storm began when home CCTV footage appeared on the Internet showing a woman befriending and stroking a cat in the street, before rather bizarrely grabbing it by the scruff of the neck and stuffing it in a bin.
The owners wanted to find out who had done this to their beloved pet and so posted the clip on Facebook, wondering if some of their friends could identify the mystery cat-napper. But they admit they had no idea the story would touch a raw nerve among animal-loving internet lovers and go viral.
Within a day cyber-vigilantes had not only identified the perpetrator as 45-year-old Mary Bale, but had also published details of her employment, her phone number and her Facebook page. Sites sprung up all over the web calling for all kinds of punishment, including a Death to Mary Bale Facebook group - which the social networking site later closed down. Things got so bad that Ms Bale needed real-life police protection.
After the initial wave of outrage, the online protest has now taken on a lighter tone. Ms Bale is now the star of a whole number of digital parodies, including a joke in which the local council wants to fine her for not putting the cat in the correct recycling bin and an online game called Whack-Cat-Woman created by the UK's The Sun newspaper.
But the whole incident has left commentators pondering the power and nature of so-called "internet justice". Many say that, while Ms Bale's behaviour was definitely cruel, it did not really seem to merit the sheer uncontrolled vehemence that poured out against her online.
