79-Year-Old Woman Gets 10 Days in Jail for Feeding Stray Cats

An Ohio judge sentenced a 79-year-old woman to ten days in the county jail for feeding stray cats.

Nancy Segula, of Garfield Heights, said she began feeding the strays a few years ago when they settled on her back porch.

“I used to have a neighbor that had a couple of cats, and he moved away, so he left them. I would always feed them and care for them because I was worried about them, and I’m a cat lover,” Segula told WJW.

But Segula’s neighbors who were not as pleased with the situation called for the authorities, who in turn, issued Segula a citation back in 2017.

She received three other citations after the 2017 citation, but nothing had changed. The fourth and final citation told her to appear before a Cuyahoga County judge, who then sentenced her to ten 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,” said Dave Pawlowski, Segula’s 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?”

A Garfield Heights city ordinance states that it is illegal to feed stray dogs and cats, but Segula does not think what she is doing is a criminal act.

Segula will get one more hearing to hear all the sides of the case before she is set to report to jail on August 11 at 9 a.m.