A kind-hearted 79-year-old woman has to serve time in jail for taking care of two stray cats in her neighborhood.
Nancy Segula said it began with her feeding a couple of abandoned kittens who started showing up on her back porch looking for food and water. She lives in the Garfield Heights area of Ohio where, under ordinance 505.23, it is against the law to feed stray dogs and cats. Nancy added:
“It began with me feeding the stray kitties. I used to have a neighbor that had a couple of cats and he moved away and when he moved away he left the cats.“
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She has received a total of four citations, the first being in 2017. Nancy remarked:
“I would always feed them and take care of them because I was worried about them and I’m a cat lover. And then, once my neighbors around here started being unhappy about it, then they called the animal warden.“
She had to go to court for her most recent citation, where the judge sentenced her to spend ten days behind bars in the Cuyahoga County Jail as punishment for feeding the cats.
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Her son, Dave Pawlowski and the rest of her family were stunned by the ruling. He said:
“I couldn’t believe my mom was telling me that, for what’s she’s doing out here, feeding some stray animals, she gets 10 days in the county jail. I couldn’t believe it.”
“I’m sure people hear about the things that happen downtown in that jail. Not a lot of good things at all and they are going to let my 79-year-old mother go there?“
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Even though it is against the law to feed stray cats, Segula’s family does not believe the punishment fits the crime. Pawlowski said:
“I understand my mother has broken a law repeatedly with this, and that is a law in Garfield Heights, but it should have been reviewed individually. Why would you send a 79-year-old lady to jail for feeding cats?“
We absolutely agree – it seems unbelieveable Nancy has to serve any time at all for showing compassion towards two abandoned kittens. It certainly seems the neighbor who abandoned the cats in the first place should be held accountable.
Nancy Segula is supposed to report to jail on August 11.
