A 79-year-old woman has been given a 10-day jail sentence after she was repeatedly cited by police for feeding stray cats in her Ohio neighbourhood.<\/p>\n
Since 2015, neighbours of Nancy Segula have been complaining to officials about the strays. She claims the cats were left behind by an ex-neighbour.<\/p>\n
“I’m a cat lover,” she told Fox 8 in Cleveland, after learning of her coming term in the Cuyahoga County Jail.<\/p>\n
Mrs Segula has been ordered by a judge to begin her sentence on 11 August.<\/p>\n
She has been cited by police four times over the past four years, after her neighbours began complaining of the swarm of cats on her property.<\/p>\n
According to police in Garfield Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Mrs Segula’s feline legal issues began in 2015 after neighbours contacted the local animal warden.<\/p>\n
At a hearing last week, she admitted to a judge that she was still feeding the cats, leading to the 10-day contempt of court charge.<\/p>\n
“Mrs Segula has never been arrested by the Police Department or the Animal Wardens,”\u00a0police said in a post on Facebook, noting the public criticism they have received<\/a>.<\/p>\n “There’s been about six to eight adult cats and now there’s kittens coming over, too,” Mrs Segula told Cleveland.com on Tuesday.<\/p>\n “I miss my own kitties, they passed away, my husband passed away. I’m lonely. So the cats and kitties outside help me.”<\/p>\n “The cats keep coming over to my house,” she added. “I just feel bad so then I will give them something to eat.”<\/p>\n She told Fox 8 that she doesn’t feel that the punishment fits the crime, adding that she has already paid more than $2,000 (\u00a31,600) in fines.<\/p>\n “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.<\/p>\n Her son, Dave Pawlowski told the channel: “I couldn’t believe what my mother was telling me. She gets 10 days in the county jail, I couldn’t believe it.”<\/p>\n “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?”<\/p>\n There’s still a chance that Mrs Segula could dodge the doghouse.<\/p>\n According to a bailiff<\/a>\u00a0for Garfield Heights Municipal Court Judge Jennifer Weiler, the judge is considering holding another hearing to determine if another sentence is possible.<\/p>\n The city’s legal director, Tim Riley, said that government officials “as a whole recognise that many are passionate about animals and pets in general”.<\/p>\n “We are also aware that many do not feel the same way,” he said, adding that the city’s intention is just to “enforce the city ordinance and alleviate a nuisance situation”.<\/p>\n So far 22 cats have been removed by the city from Mrs Segula’s property, added Mr Riley.<\/p>\n Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"‘I’m a cat lover’<\/h2>\n