Officials are removing at least 70 cats from the home of an elderly U.S. Postal Service worker in what the Martin County sheriff called the “worst animal hoarding case” the jurisdiction’s ever seen.
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Authorities were at the home in the 11500 block of Southwest Meadowlark Circle on Monday, two weeks after they received a report about a mail carrier “stealing or collecting” cats along her route, Sheriff John Budensiek said.
What they found was that the worker, 77-year-old Gail Giustino, was living in “squalor” in an unventilated home with at least 70 caged cats and an unknown number of dogs that produced an “extreme stench” once officials were able to get inside.
“Quite frankly, our animal control was not suited properly to handle that. So Hazmat came out from fire rescue,” Budensiek said. “We’re talking about in some places a foot of animal feces in that house. There is no air conditioning in that house. So when we cracked the door on it earlier today, the stench was unreal. The air was stifling hot.”
He said he was “shocked” Giustino was able to live in the home, and that neighbors had not reported concerning odors, probably due to the house being “completely sealed off.”
The sheriff’s office said the animals were never walked or taken outside. They believe Giustino “didn’t steal somebody’s pet, but she was likely collecting feral cats.” It was unclear how long the cats and dogs had been kept there.
“So they’ve been confined to that animal jail really for however long she’s been hoarding these pets in there,” Budensiek said.
Authorities were working to determine the animals’ medical conditions before transferring them to the Humane Society. Giustino fed the cats, Budensiek said, but “we believe she used a flea spray up until the point where she may have injured one of the animals by using it so much.”
Before her arrest, the sheriff’s office believes Giustino “may have taken up to 20 animals to different facilities around Martin County.” Budensiek said she had told them that she had surrendered all her animals.
“Well that’s 15 that weren’t here today that we would have had to add to our list… and there may be more out there that she did not tell us about that we’re not aware of,” Budensiek said. “If Gail has come to your facility and surrendered animals, we want to know about it, because we really don’t know how many animals she initially had.”
Giustino was charged with two misdemeanors, including animal cruelty and confining an animal without sufficient food or water.
‘Gail thinks she’s doing the right thing’
Sheriff Budensiek repeatedly described Giustino as a mentally ill woman who thinks “she’s doing the right thing, but she’s doing it the wrong way.”
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He said bringing criminal charges against her was the only way to get into the property, as she initially would not cooperate with their investigation.
“The goal of arresting her was to be able to seize the animals to save them from death,” he said. “We could have charged her with 160 counts, two counts per animal. We’re only charging with two counts.”
Ten years ago, Giustino was issued up to 65 civil citations for confining animals in her house, but “code enforcement was involved and helped her mitigate some of the problems she had, which was ventilation and not proper care of these animals,” the sheriff added.
She reportedly installed air conditioning units in each window, none of which are currently functioning. In the past 10 years, she has also accumulated trash that blocked entry into the house, forcing officials to “clear a path” or enter through the back door, Budensiek said.
“Well, in the last 10 years, she has slipped back in her old habits,” the sheriff said.
Budensiek hopes the criminal proceedings keep Giustino from repossessing animals.
“What we want to happen is that she doesn’t get animals back, or she can only have one or two. And then we want her to go through the mental health court process to get her some kind of an evaluation and see where she is,” he said.
The sheriff said that would allow deputies to check on the home and ensure its living conditions.
Budensiek said Giustino was “specific” about how many cats she had in which room, and described her as “[knowing] her animals,” including which had just had kittens, whether those kittens had grown and how old they were.
“If I thought she was abusing these animals on purpose, we would try to bury her under the jail,” he said. “That’s not the case in this case.”
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