EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng review công ty eyeq tech eyeq tech giờ ra sao EyeQ Tech review EyeQ Tech EyeQ Tech tuyển dụng crab meat crab meat crab meat importing crabs live crabs export mud crabs vietnamese crab exporter vietnamese crabs vietnamese seafood vietnamese seafood export vietnams crab vietnams crab vietnams export vietnams export
US News

Arizona man faces jail time for spending $100K to feed town’s cats

By
Amanda Woods
Published Jan. 30, 2020
Updated Jan. 30, 2020, 12:27 p.m. ET

An Arizona man who has spent 14 years — and up to $100,000 — feeding his town’s feral cats could serve time behind bars for the act, according to a new report.

Paul Rodriguez, 64, of Gilbert, spends his own time and money traveling to different established feeding locations across town, he told KNXV.

“It can quickly add up to a commitment of thousands and thousands of dollars,” he told the local station. “Frankly, over that period of time I’ve probably put in $100,000.”

Rodriguez said he believes feeding the cats helps contain them to certain areas so they can be trapped, spayed and neutered — and their population could be controlled.

But the town of Gilbert passed an ordinance in 2018 banning feeding stray cats “on town-owned property or a public right-of-way.”

That hasn’t stopped Rodriguez, who was confronted by cops five times this past May alone — the final time ending in his arrest, Brenda Currasco, public information officer for the Gilbert Police Department, told ABC News.

“You’ve been told several times that the people in this neighborhood don’t want you out here feeding the feral cats,” the arresting officer says in a body camera recording obtained by KNXV.

Rodriguez claimed the privately owned Southwest Gas company gave him permission to feed the cats on their property — but the officer said that wasn’t the case.

“They don’t know who you are and they said they have never given you permission,” the officer said.

Rodriguez was charged with providing false information to a police officer, Currasco told ABC.

But even the arrest didn’t stop Rodriguez, who continues to feed the hungry felines and has been issued citations and fines worth up to $100 each.

“From then on, we haven’t seen a change in his behavior,” Currasco told the network. “He continues to feed the cats.”

The cat-friendly neighbor’s trial was initially set for Tuesday, but has been postponed, according to Currasco.

“I am potentially looking at a serious fine and potentially I could be locked up in jail for a period of time as well,” Rodriguez told KNXV.