Advertisement 'I'm a cat lover': 79-year-old woman sentenced to jail for feeding stray cats Share Shares Copy Link Copy

A 79-year-old woman said her upcoming jail sentence started with her wanting to help out a few stray cats. Nancy Segula said, “"It began with me feeding the stray kitties."Segula lives in Ohio, in the Garfield Heights area, where feeding stray animals is against the law. But that didn’t stop her from helping out a few cats when her neighbor abandoned them. "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,” she said. The felines started showing up on her back porch, seeking food and water. In 2017, she received her first citation. Overall, she received four citations. "I would always feed them and take care of them because I was worried about them and I'm a cat lover,” she said. “And then, once my neighbors around here started being unhappy about it, then they called the animal warden."Her latest citation required her to appear before a judge last week who sentenced her to spend 10 days behind bars at the Cuyahoga County Jail for feeding the cats. Dave Pawlowski, her son, 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."Segula’s family was stunned by the order. Pawlowski said, "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?"In Garfield Heights, it is illegal to feed stray dogs and cats under ordinance 505.23. However, Segula’s family does not believe the punishment fits the crime.“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,” Pawlowski said. “Why would you send a 79-year-old lady to jail for feeding cats?"Segula is supposed to report to jail Aug. 11.