Ohio woman sentenced to 10 days in jail for feeding stray cats

Nancy Segula speaks to WJW reporter after she was sentenced to 10-days in jail for feeding stray cats in her neighborhood. (CNN Newsource)

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio — A 79-year-old woman who lives in Garfield Heights, Ohio said she was sentenced to 10-days in jail, after she began feeding stray cats in her neighborhood.

Nancy Segula, 79, says a couple years ago, cats started showing up on her back porch.

"It began in 2017 with me feeding stray kitties. 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."

Segula got her first citation in 2017, and then more followed.

“I got a total of four,” Segula said.

Her latest citation required her to appear before Magistrate Jeffrey Short last week, WJW 8 reported. He sentenced her to 10 days in the Cuyahoga 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,” said Dave Pawlowski, her son. “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?”

In Garfield Heights, it is illegal to feed stray dogs and cats under ordinance 505.23. However, Segula’s family doesn’t feel the punishment fits 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,” Segula said.

Segula is to report to the jail on August 11.

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Ohio woman sentenced to 10 days in jail for feeding stray cats