In the land of animal lovers, Great Britain, children put a 22-year-old cat in a plastic bag and dumped the bag in a wheelie bin

NEWS AND VIEWS: In the land of so-called animal lovers, Great Britain, the BBC reports that children put a 22-year-old cat in a plastic bag and then dumped her in a wheelie bin. For international visitors, a "wheelie bin" is a rubbish bin where household rubbish is placed to be collected once a week if you are lucky.

Frankie. Image: Feline Cat Care Rescue.

This is a very unsettling story because if children are treating a domestic cat like this - and this is an elderly cat and therefore all the more vulnerable - it does not bode well for the future of animal welfare in the UK. Has there been a deterioration in society's morals in the UK over the past 20 years? I think there has been.

I genuinely mean that. I see that in terms of greatly increased crime especially petty crime which undermines society. The police do not stop minor crimes taking place. They do not catch and arrest small-time criminals. This, as mentioned, undermines the very fabric of society.

This slack police attitude can lead to the sort of behaviour these two kids engaged in. The cat's name is Frankie and she was fished out of a rubbish bin in Wymondham, Norfolk, UK and taken to Feline Cat Care Rescue last Saturday.

The owner and manager of that cat rescue, Molly Farrar, posted the story on social media. She said that security cameras in the area had been checked and the police had been informed about the crime.

Of course, the police will not consider this to be a crime but it is under the Animal Welfare Act 2006.

RELATED: some more on kids being cruel: New Zealand's junior school kids love to shoot cats for prize money.

We don't know how people found out about this. Security cameras? If they hadn't found out Frankie would have died of suffocation or starvation in that wheelie bin. Or the wheelie bin would have been picked up by the bin men and she would have been crushed in their lorry.

Yes, this is an example of animal cruelty. That is quite clear. Frankie was checked for a microchip at the rescue center. It was not up-to-date but it did reveal her age which is exceptional.

Her owners have been found and her real name is Cleo. Her name had been changed when she was five years of age. The children are yet to be identified and I would bet they will never be identified.

And therefore, there are children wandering around the suburbs of Wymondham who might do something similar again. I do not think that that is satisfactory.

Frankie is happy to be reunited with her owners. We don't know the whys and wherefores as to Frankie getting lost.