Cat fight in mobile home park Cat fight in mobile home park (April 26, 2002)

By Bill D'Agostino

In a tightly compacted mobile home park community, feral felines can spark epic feuds among neighbors.

Al Stuetzle _ an 83-year-old stained glass window artist _ wants his neighbors to know that although he traps stray cats in cages, he is not a cat abuser.

Betty Galin _ a 73-year-old former attorney who lives down the road from Stuetzle in the Sahara Village mobile home park _ denies accusations that she is a deranged cat lover who owns numerous strays and vandalizes Stuetzle's property.

Both Galin and Stuetzle are tired of the allegations that the other has made about them, and vehemently denies them.

They have been to court numerous times over the cats in the park and on Thursday, April 25, they were expected to go again _ this time over allegations that Galin spray-painted the word "KILLER" on the side of Stuetzle's home.

"I don't do things like that," Galin said, accusing Stuetzle of senile dementia. "This sounds weird," Stuetzle admitted, "but at my age, you don't make up these kinds of stories."

The trap Stuetzle uses to catch the stray cats is furnished by the park management. He nabs the felines because his wife is allergic to them, they carry diseases and they ruin his other neighbors' gardens, he said.

In the three years he's used the trap, he's caught only six cats, he said, but many more skunks and possums.
A long-brewing controversy

Allegations of cat abuse trace back to April of 2001, Stuetzle said. Back then, he caught a skunk in the cat trap he keeps behind his mobile home.

A neighbor, thinking Stuetzle was abusing the cat by poking it with a stick, called the police on him. But Stuetzle said that he was using a stick to open the cage because he had caught a skunk, not a cat.

Jim Bennett, the police department's public information officer, said that the police did come to Stuetzle's home on that occasion _ as well other times _ but have found no evidence of cat abuse by him.

In fact, no cat ever recovered from traps in Sahara Village has shown any signs of abuse, according to Sandi Stadler, the superintendent of the Palo Alto Animal Services Department, which takes the wild cats caught by traps.

As a result of the allegations of abuse, however, the police department is going to begin heavily patrolling the area, according to Mayor Sally Lieber.

Some other neighbors think something even more sinister is afoot, though. They think the park's owner and manager are using Stuetzle's traps to ensnare Galin and kick her out of the park.
Allegations of a management conspiracy

The Sahara Village Mobile Home Park is one of two parks owned by businessman John Vidovich; both parks are currently being studied by the city after reports of abuses by Vidovich and the park management. Vidovich did not return calls for this story.

Tony Ban _ who lives next door to Galin _ believes the park management has a longstanding problem with Galin, who he believes is a whistleblower who has done nothing wrong.

Ban is the current president of the park's chapter of the Golden State Manufactured-home Owners League (GSMOL), a statewide mobile home park residents' advocacy group

Ban said he has received four phone calls from residents claiming Stuetzle abuses cats, leading him to believe Galin's accusations.

The park management has taken Galin to court trying to evict her for breaking park rules by owning too many cats; Galin said she only has two cats, allowed by her lease and Ban said he has never seen more than two cats at her residence.

The feud with management, Galin said, stems from 1997, when she upset the park management because she ran for GSMOL president against Barbara Nuss, who has since become the park's manager.

Nuss and other park managers also did not respond to repeated requests for interviews for this story.

Stuetzle said that the people, like Ban and Galin, who are complaining about the managers are in the minority. "It's just a handful, in my opinion," he said.

But many park residents complained to the city about management being a vindictive bully during a fact-finding forum the city held as a result of the investigation into Vidovich.

Stuetzle disagreed with those neighbors. "They give us a lot of freedom ... I feel we're very lucky," he said. He added that those who speak out are probably in trouble with park management for breaking rules. "Most of the rules are to protect us, not hurt us."

Stuetzle said Vidovich helped pay his legal fees for the court cases against Galin, but Stuetzle noted that he has never met Vidovich and prior to the pay-off, he threatened to sue the park if Vidovich didn't help pay the legal fees.
Feud climaxes

Stuetzle has also accused Galin of being near his home at night as she roams the park, looking for her lost cats or to vandalize the property of residents who, like him, cage cats. "When a cat is caught," he said, "she goes berserk."

But Galin denies that. "What can I do?" she asked. "I'm in the position of proving the negative is wrong. I don't know what to say other than I didn't do it."

Ban said that he has never seen Galin awake after 9 p.m., when she usually goes to bed.

The climax of the feud between the two neighbors came on Feb. 27. That day, Stuetzle had caught a cat in his trap and Galin went to his house to free the cat after hearing about its capture from a neighbor

Galin said that when she approached his house, she saw him kicking the cage, but he denies that. The two struggled over the trap and during the tussle, Galin lost her grip on it and fell down.

Eventually, Stuetzle ran into his house and grabbed his digital camera, snapping pictures of Galin as she released the cat from the cage. Those pictures were used in evidence in small claims court when Stuetzle sued Galin for scratching his black Oldsmobile during the struggle.

The judge in the case ordered Galin to pay more than $2,000 for damage she allegedly inflicted upon Stuetzle's car during the tussle.

But Galin said she is appealing the case because she did not damage the car; another neighbor _ who wished to remain anonymous _ said that it was Stuetzle himself who scratched the car when he was moving the cage from behind his house.

That day in February, Galin said, was the only time she has tried to free a cat from a trap in the park. She said the reason she went over to Stuetzle's house was because she had received a call from another neighbor who said he was abusing the cat.

The night before, Galin added, she also received another phone call from a woman who didn't give her name who said that there were cat screams coming from Steutzle's place.

Galin said she is not opposed to feral cats being caught. She just wants to make sure they are caught properly. "I don't think the park should furnish traps unless it's in the hands of a responsible person," Galin said.

"I have a right to trap cats and I treat them humanely," Stuetzle argued. He thinks the allegations against him are just rumors that have passed around from neighbor to neighbor, spearheaded by Galin. Many of his accusers, like Ban, have never met him and would not know him if they saw him walking around, he noted.

Stuetzle said he could laugh off the wild accusations, only his wife has strangers telling her at Bingo that he's a cat killer. "The trouble is." he added, "we're living too close together at this mobile home park."