92-year-old Moss Creek woman fined for feeding furry friends

As a little girl, Mary Clover first came to the rescue of animals in need when she fed a starving mother cat and the kittens she’d found in a woodshed near her home.

“Ever since I was a child, I have always wanted to help animals,” she said Friday.

Now 92 and living in the Moss Creek community at the foot at the Hilton Head Island bridges, Clover has gotten in trouble for doing what she loves most - feeding animals she believes are in need.

She received a letter from the Moss Creek Owner’s Association on March 9 telling her she will be fined $35 because she feeds feral cats on the community’s private property.

“Once again, it has been brought to our attention that you are putting out food in the Moss Creek Common area along Peninsula Drive for wild animals,” the letter said.

Clover said she was actually feeding squirrels with dry cat food, and has been warned once before after residents of the community complained.

“I decided I’d get up at 6:30 a.m., when it was barely light, to do the feeding,” she said in response to the first complaint.

However, she was caught again by Moss Creek staff, leading to the $35 fine.

“Everything is very structured,” Clover said. “But I thought having rules against feeding wildlife if they need it is really a shame.”

But rules are rules, according to Suzanna Johnston, assistant to the Moss Creek general manager.

“Wild animals are wild,” Johnston said Friday. “We have millions of squirrels in here who are obviously finding food from some other source.

“She’s a sweet lady,” Johnston said of Clover.

The rules against feeding wildlife are mostly in place to deter residents from coming into close contact with alligators, Johnston said, but homeowners are allowed to keep bird feeders on their property.

The fine increases to $100 for a third offense, according to the letter.

If Clover is caught a fourth time, that fine can hit from $250 to $1,000 at the general manager’s and Moss Creek board’s discretion.

“When we first moved here, you saw a lot of wildlife,” Clover said. “That’s one of the things we liked when we first came here.”

When she and her husband moved to Moss Creek over two decades ago, Clover said she began feeding feral cat colonies in the area and was responsible for 57 of the animals by the time she decided to pass along the chore to others when she turned 90.

“I’ve always taken care of animals wherever I’ve gone,” she said.

That didn’t change when she stopped making the daily trips to feed local cats and switched to squirrels closer to home.

“I haven’t decided to pay the fine,” Clover said. “I’ve stopped (feeding squirrels) for two days and it’s very sad.”

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 3:36 PM with the headline "92-year-old Moss Creek woman fined for feeding furry friends."