英國"虐貓大嬸"遭起訴

A British woman who sparked an Internet hate campaign after she was caught on camera dumping a cat into a rubbish bin was charged Monday with causing unnecessary suffering to the animal.

Mary Bale, a 45-year-old bank worker, has also been charged with failing to provide the cat with a suitable environment, a spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) said.

Bale will appear before magistrates in Coventry, central England, on October 19 to answer the charges.

Both offences can carry a prison sentence and a lifetime ban from keeping animals.

The cat, Lola, was believed to have been stuck in the plastic wheelie bin for 15 hours until her owners Darryl and Stephanie Mann heard her miaowing.

They found out what happened after checking footage from a closed-circuit television camera they had installed at their house after their car was repeatedly bumped by other vehicles.

The video was posted on video sharing site You Tube and a Facebook campaign was launched with some contributors making death threats against Bale.

因被攝像頭拍下把一隻小貓丟進垃圾桶而遭到網友聲討的英國“虐貓大嬸”本週一遭到起訴，罪名爲虐待動物。

英國防止虐待動物協會的一位發言人表示，肇事者、45歲的銀行職員瑪麗•貝爾面臨的另一項指控爲未能爲小貓提供舒適的環境。

貝爾將於10月19日在英格蘭中部考文垂出庭，接受當地官員的質詢。

每項罪名都足以把她送進監獄，並終身禁養動物。

這隻名爲蘿拉的小貓據稱被困在塑料移動垃圾桶裏長達15個小時，直到它的主人達裏和斯蒂芬妮•曼恩聽到它的叫聲才獲救。

貓主人在自家安裝的視頻監控錄像中發現了“虐貓大嬸”的行徑。由於愛車屢次被其它車輛刮蹭，他們安裝了監控系統。

這段虐貓視頻被上傳至YouTube視頻分享網站，並在Facebook網友中引起公憤，部分網友還威脅瑪麗•貝爾的人身安全。

Vocabulary:

magistrate: a civil officer charged with the administration of the law（地方官員）

wheelie bin: a large container for rubbish, esp one used by a household, mounted on wheels so that it can be moved more easily（帶蓋子和底輪的大垃圾桶）

closed-circuit television: 閉路電視