throwaway cat

Found on Boing Boing and elsewhere, a middle aged woman throws away a cat.



The backlash on this has been amazing. Within 24 hours of posting this CCTV clip online, the ubiquitous eThey uncovered the lady's identity. Now she's got some mild police protection because of what can be construed as death threats from around the world. Since she's issued the most banal of apologies evah, followed by 'I don't know what the fuss is about. It's just a cat,' more threats and anger are sure to follow.

I'll be tracking it to see how long the outrage lasts because I have a story based on the idea of the online life of severe emotion. (In my story, it's to do with the death of someone famous, but it's kinda similar.)

More  intriguing has been all the armchair psychological analysis on the lady. Of course most people side with the cat, but speculation runs the gamut from psychopath to annoyed old lady cuz the cat poos in her flowers. One thing is clear from the clip; she's in full control, she checks around to see if anyone's watching. But like most people, she forgot to look up.

What do you think? What do you think drove her to do this? What kind of personality drops a cat in a bin?

7 comments:

Kelsey (Dominique) Ridge said...

I just watched the clip, and my first thought was, "that's so mean." My heart goes out to the unfortunate cat who had to spend goodness knows how long in a closed trash bin. I hope someone got it out eventually.

Really, this animal might be "just a cat," but if the true measure of a person's character is how they treat beings with less power than him or herself, then this woman isn't what I'd call someone of good character.

ssas said...

It was in there for 15 hours and it's fine now. Its owners rescued it.

Good point on the measure of character.

Stephen Parrish said...

This was hard for me to watch. I hope the woman gets cancer and dies.

Travis Erwin said...

Boy am I glad no one has ever captured any of my transgressions on video.

writtenwyrdd said...

to me the act is worse for her having just done it for no apparent reason. Total psycho behavior, and it is sort of scary to think there are people walking around like that.

But the outcry is a bit disturbing to me because you don't hear that level of outcry for people that often. It worries me that we are profoundly disconnected from our fellow humans...

Erica Orloff said...

I'm with writtenwyrd.

I think it's SICK. Sick, sick, sick. And I found it awful to watch. But the OUTCRY. People working themselves into a frenzy to the point where she needs police protection? Darfur. Genocide. Mass rape in the Congo. Children hungry EVERY DAY here. Throwaway CHILDREN working as prostitutes in every major city and on Craigslist. And if you're an animal lover? Plenty of massive tragedies.

If all those people spent just ONE hour, or TWO hours a week volunteering for something? The world would be a better place. But instead, people would rather spew venom and get worked up over everything from a mosque to a cat to an actress out of rehab.

ssas said...

Well said, Erica.