GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio (WSVN) — A 79-year-old woman has been sentenced to 10 days in jail for feeding stray cats at her Ohio home.
According to Fox 8, Nancy Segula has been feeding stray cats on her back porch since 2017.
“I used to have a neighbor that had a couple cats, and he moved away, so he left them,” Segula said. “I would always feed them and care for them because I was worried about them, and I’m a cat lover. Once my neighbors got upset about it, they called the animal warden.”
She received her first citation in 2017. However, it would not be her last.
“I got a total of four,” Segula said.
Her latest citation required her to appear before a magistrate last week, who then sentenced her to 10 days in the county jail.
“I couldn’t believe what my mother was telling me. She gets 10 days in the county jail, I couldn’t believe it,” Segula’s son, Dave Pawlowski, told Fox 8. “I’m sure people hear about the things that happen downtown in that jail, and they are going to let my 79-year-old mother go there?”
It is illegal to feed stray animals under a city ordinance, but Segula feels that the punishment is inappropriate for the crime.
“It’s too much of a sentence for me for what I’m doing. When there are so many people out there that do bad things,” she said.
According to Cleveland.com a county judge, who was out of court during the sentencing, said she plans to hear the case and all sides to determine if another outcome is necessary instead of jail. A new court date has not yet been set.
Segula is scheduled to report to the county jail on Aug. 11 at 9 a.m.
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