LONDON — Occasionally glancing at a garbage bin, the gray-haired woman gently pets the cat.
Then the woman strikes, casually grabbing it by the scruff, tossing it in, closing the lid and quickly strolling away. The surveillance video posted online by Lola’s owners takes only seconds, but it has outraged thousands of viewers around the world, some of whom posted angry messages pledging retribution.
Now, police say they’ve identified the woman and posted guards outside her house in central England and urged residents to remain calm.
Investigators at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which prosecutes cruelty cases, said Tuesday that the gray striped cat was trapped for 15 hours before being rescued Sunday by her owners, who told a British newspaper they heard Lola’s muffled cries from inside the bin. The cat was distressed but unharmed.
Lola’s owner Stephanie Mann said she and husband Darryl couldn’t find Lola on Sunday morning but heard her mewing.
The couple had previously installed a personal surveillance camera outside their home following a spate of thefts in the area.
Mann said they checked the video expecting to discover that youths, or a drunk, had thrown Lola into the bin late Saturday They were shocked to find the culprit was a respectable-looking woman.
“I was absolutely heartbroken to see how someone could just be so cruel,” she told a newspaper. “I don’t know what went through her head, but it was just disgusting to watch and it broke my 8-year-old daughter’s heart.”
