Cat’s what I call News
Bit of a mental week. I broke the ‘Woman Puts Cat in Wheelie Bin’ story to The Sun and The Daily Mail. It went global.
Here’s the story.
So I saw someone – a school mate Steve Davis – from Coventry had shared the CCTV footage on facebook, who knows the cat’s owners. As soon as I saw it I thought – “hello!”. It’s insane. That soon-to-be lynched lady – Mary Gale – was strolling down Bray’s Lane, started stroking that cat… at this point it seems like an inocuous and pedestrian video. Then, what! She lifts open the wheelie bin lid… you’re sensing what’s gonna happen but no.. she’s not… she IS! She’s picked it up by the scruff of the neck…. and popped the little bugger in the bin! Unbelievable. Here’s my upload:
Then what?
I’m a bit of a social media opportunist these days. So I checked on youtube to see if the video had been uploaded. Nope! So, using some studious powers I ripped the video of facebook and uploaded it my bobbyfletch85 channel before forwarding the link to The Sun, The Daily Mail and The Guardian. The next day it was plastered all over internet news citing yours truly. Here with The Sun, then the Daily Mail, The Guardian couldn’t be arsed. I love this emphatic report from CNN:
By this point my youtube video had attracted 14,480 hits in about 27 hours which is quite a lot. It put me at #25 on youtube’s most read list. Then, for reasons I still don’t understand, youtube removed the video offering no explanation. I emailed them a couple of times but to no avail. I can only assume they believe I uploaded it to giggle at some animal cruelty or because it wasn’t my security footage. That would be fair enough BUT about a dozen people STILL have the video listed.
Course I’d be lying if I didn’t get a bit of a kick of being the guy who broke it and have a video with hundreds of thousands of hits. It would have been nice, just to get some exposure to my other clips. But no. Bastarding youtube thought otherwise. Youtube have now reinstated the video (21/10/10).
Anyway, my name didn’t follow the story into the papers – which wasn’t too surprising, not least because the video was no longer on my youtube account but also because me and the cat… have no connection.
World Reaction and Parody
It’s amazing how it’s gone done the rounds so fast, attracting global interest as far away as Australia, Canada, Germany, America and New Zealand. In France’s Le Post they are even making these anti cat-binning T-Shirts!
Along with the newspapers, a sympathy group was started on Facebook which attracted over 30,000 members before being removed.
I thought to myself, I’m going to be make a little comedy sketch. I had this idea planned out complete with a cat costume… but blow me down if Mercia FM (Coventry Radio station) didn’t get there first with this:
It’s a credit to the way the story has captured the public’s imagination that a parody came out so quickly. It’s an all right video… but to be honest, it’s not overly hilarious, probably due to time constraints. My one would have been funnier. I think they just wanted to get something online as soon as possible, which is fair enough. There are countless more tributes and spoofs on youtube now.
I find it quite amazing that the story has gone so nuts. I just read Ian Haysom’s article in the Daily Colonist where he observes how a tramp, forced to sleep in a dumpster was was nearly crushed to death by a garbage truck when it picked him up – this story attracted zero emotional reaction from the public. It goes to show how fond we are of cats, moreover, the welfare of animals sometimes more so than humans. That’s strange isn’t it?
Robin Ince – who I supported for My First Gig – commented wryly today that the cat in the bin story can help us understand the universe. If that wasn’t surreal enough, Deputy Prime Minister announced his feelings a few hours ago. Someone has even had a go at doing Cat in the Bin: The Musical.
FAQ
What have people/friends said?
Well done mainly. Which is weird as I’ve not really done anything. I suppose it may have taken longer to find Mary Gale without the whole tabloid furore. She had nowhere to hide! But I reckon the footage might have got to them eventually. My boss at work – Henrietta Conrad – sent my a bottle of Champagne to say congratulations. Which was a nice surprise!
If Mary Gale get’s murdered or something, will you feel bad?
Nah. She’ll be okay, probably. Just read that she may lose her job at RBS which will satisfy the masses. I do feel a bit sorry for her. The reaction is definitely OTT. Imagine how much weird/bad stuff CCTV everywhere captures that we’re not allowed to see because of laws in place? I doubt this is the first cat that’s been binned. I bet an elephant has been pushed down a flight of stairs on CCTV, but it’ll never see the light of day… unfortunately.
Will you get paid?
Someone asked me whether The Sun had paid me a fee? I said, ‘what? why would they?’. ‘Are you being serious? Because you’ve helped them shift countless more papers. The story has ran for 4 days, with regular news updates. Plus I don’t know how the media world works exactly, but they might have sold the story on to countless other news networks!’. With that in mind, I sent them a reminder and they’ve tentatively agreed to pay me a fee, which is cool. Although, I don’t think I can keep it. I mean, really. If I did, I’d be profiting off some tormented binned-up cat. I’ll donate it to charity. They aught to give send me like £2000 or something to be fair but I expect they’ll try and get away with a £50 boots voucher.
Do you hate cats? Or are you a cat guardian protector sent from the future?
I’m not mad about them. We have a cat called shitbag. I say, “have”, it’s sort of a stray cat that pops in about once a week. That’s enough.
Do you feel famous?
Sort of. Well, when they were quoting me in the news reports. Apparently ITN News on cited ‘bobbyfletch85′ on the telly report. That’s quite cool. And that my name is splashed all over google. But in a weird egotistical way, it’s frustrating that they removed the video from youtube. I would have liked to have milked that. Then again, I hope this cat story isn’t the only thing of note I ever EVER do. It’s kinda cool, but not THAT cool. It’s a just a friggin cat for christs sake!
Anyway. Yeah. If I get a fee through from The Sun/Daily Mail, what should I do with the dosh? To make this survey more interesting, I’ve paired each choice with what should be done with Mary Gale. You decide!
Salut! Can I quote piece of the information from your blog if I provide a linkback to your website?
Yeah sure!
cool
[...] Birthday best wishes to me, incredible really! By the way you can see me on telly talking about the Cat in a Bin lady. That’s on January 21st on Channel 4 on a show called ‘Funniest Moments of [...]