Caught on CCTV, girl of 12 dumping cat in wheelie bin
THIS is the sickening moment a girl of 12 dumped a terrified cat into a wheelie bin.
She then cruelly piled a heavy bag of rubbish on top of the lid to prevent the animal from escaping.
The girl even returned a few minutes later to check the black cat was still inside.
A horrified neighbour discovered what had happened a day later when she watched footage from a security camera monitoring activity outside her home in Hull.
Jean Atkinson, 68, immediately reported the incident to the RSPCA and put the shocking CCTV film online.
Luckily the cat is believed to have escaped because it was no longer in the bin when Mrs Atkinson checked.
Yesterday, after the video was picked up by news websites, the schoolgirl responsible went to a local police station to admit what she had done. She now faces possible prosecution.
A Humberside Police spokesman said: ‘A 12-year-old girl has come into a police station with her mother to say that she is the girl in the video footage. We will be con- ducting an investigation of the incident as causing unnecessary suffering to an animal … We will be speaking to the 12-yearold girl about the incident and establish the best course of action.’
The incident happened at around 6pm on August 17. The footage shows the girl picking up the cat by the scruff of its neck and dumping it inside the wheelie bin before slamming the lid shut.
A large bag of rubbish is put on top – weighing the lid down – and some of the contents spill on to the street. The girl is seen to run off but returns four minutes later to peek inside.
Mrs Atkinson, a retired social services worker, said: ‘I just couldn’t believe it. She needs to be named and shamed … hopefully she won’t be able to do it again.’
The great-grandmother added: ‘I lost my cat a few months ago and I just pray nothing like this happened to him.’
Cameras had been installed due to previous anti-social behaviour. Mrs Atkinson was shocked when she examined the footage. She added: ‘I have four dogs and one cat and love animals so it was quite distressing to see what this young girl did.’
An RSPCA spokesman said: ‘The cat’s welfare is our priority and being put in a bin would have caused the animal a lot of distress. We understand the cat was no longer in the bin when the lady checked … we hope very much that the cat is OK. This sort of behaviour is not acceptable.’ In 2010, bank worker Mary Bale caused public outcry when she was caught on camera dumping a cat in a wheelie bin in Coventry. The four-year- old tabby named Lola was found in the bin 15 hours later by owner Darryl Mann. Bale was fined £250 after admitting causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.