Beachwood threatens woman for feeding stray cats

BEACHWOOD -- Resident trying to trap, neuter and release feral cats

Helen Marks can visit the stray cats in her backyard, but she's not allowed to feed them. The City of Beachwood claims Helen is creating a nuisance by trying to help the feral cat population in her neighborhood on Bryden Road.

A holocaust survivor, Helen Marks knows the meaning of kindness. She told Channel 3's Mike O'Mara, "I can not stand to see anything hungry. I have been hungry. Believe me, I know what it's like to be hungry."

For the last 14 years, Helen and her husband, Bob Marks, have been trapping the wild cats, getting the animals spayed or neutered and given rabies shots. The animals are then released back into the neighborhood.

Helen says this is the solution "to a long range problem. Trapping, neutering, and releasing is the way to go." Many animal activists agree that TNR (trap neuter and release) is the best way to manage feral cat colonies like the one in Beachwood.

In neighboring Gates Mills, the city actually puts out feeders for the feral cats behind the city service garage. The city even installed a pipe bridge across the nearby creek to give the feral colony access to the food. All the animals are then trapped, neutered and released.

Animal activist, Dolores Levin, helped spearhead the Gates Mills feral cat project. She thinks Beachwood officials need to be educated about feral cats.

Dolores says Marks' family "deserves a medal. They really do. They did what everybody should be doing about feral cats."

"Helen Marks is solving the problem," said Levin. "If every resident in Beachwood would do that when they saw a feral cat, the population would continue to go down year after year after year."

Beachwood housing inspector, Kelly Avritt, assistant building commisioner, William Griswold, and mayor, Merle Gordon, all declined to on camera interviews.

Meanwhile the hungry stray cats still come to Helen Marks' back door every day hoping for food. She knows the city of Beachwood can punish her for that simple act of kindness.

Said Helen, "it is devastating. It just makes you want to cry."