A 77-year-old Florida mail carrier accused of taking cats from her postal route was arrested after deputies entered her sweltering home and found more than 100 animals trapped in what the sheriff called an “animal jail.”
Gail Giustino, of Stuart, had been the subject of a report that a postal worker was “stealing or collecting cats” while working, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.
By the time investigators entered the home with a warrant July 20, the case had grown into what Budensiek called the “worst animal hoarding case” he had ever seen.
Some animals later turned out not to be strays at all. The sheriff’s office had identified the owners of five animals and said some rescued pets had already been reunited with people who believed they would never see them again.
Giustino was charged with one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty and one misdemeanor count of confinement of animals without sufficient exercise. She was released on a $50,000 bond.
Budensiek said she could have faced as many as 160 animal cruelty counts, but the sheriff described the arrest as the fastest way to remove animals from the house before more damage was done.
“The goal of arresting her was to be able to seize the animals, to save them from death and try to get them the help that they need,” Budensiek said.
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The conditions inside the home made that urgency plain.
Detectives, firefighters and animal control officers went in wearing hazmat suits and found dozens of cats, at least a dozen small dogs and cages inside a house with no working air conditioning or ventilation.
On the late July day the animals were removed, Budensiek said the temperature inside was “probably 110 degrees.”
The sheriff had expected a much smaller scene.
“We were coming out here thinking maybe 15, 20, 30 cats,” Budensiek told reporters outside Giustino’s home as people in white protective suits carried cages away.
Instead, he said, parts of the residence contained “a foot of animal feces.”
The air was bad enough to hit responders before they could move through the house.
“When we cracked the door…the stench was unreal,” Budensiek said. “The air was stifling hot.”
Authorities said investigators faced an “overwhelming” smell of “animal urine, feces, and ammonia,” and the odor drifted outside the home.
Inside, arrest records described conditions that left “no safe path of entry due to excessive debris, animal feces, and urine.”
The odor was so severe that it “presented a potential health hazard to responding personnel,” the records said.
Budensiek said the animals had not been treated like pets living in a home.
“She never walks the pets. She never brings them outside of the house. They’ve been confined to that animal jail really for however long she’s been hoarding these pets,” he said.
Authorities had been trying to inspect the house for weeks before the warrant, the sheriff said, but Giustino was uncooperative.
The property also had a long history with local animal control.
Since 2014, animal control had issued “up to 65 civil citations” to Giustino over the conditions in which animals were being kept, according to Budensiek.
Code enforcement officers had also helped her add air-conditioning units to the home, but those units were not working when investigators entered, the sheriff said.
Budensiek acknowledged the long gap in oversight.
“We haven’t been out here checking on her for the last 10 years,” he said.
The sheriff said investigators did not believe Giustino thought she was abusing the animals.
“We truly believe that Gail thinks she’s doing the right thing,” Budensiek said. “But she’s doing it the wrong way.”
He also said authorities hoped the court process would help lead Giustino toward mental health treatment.
The rescued animals were taken to the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast for medical attention and evaluations.
Sarah Fisher, of the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast, said many of the animals bore signs of stress.
“A lot are underweight. Some are missing fur. They do that when they are under a lot of stress,” Fisher said.
The sheriff’s office asked anyone who believed one of the cats could belong to them to file a missing pet report and schedule a time to be reunited.
The Florida case was unfolding as another large animal-welfare investigation played out across the country at the Acton, California, property of “The Exorcist” alum Linda Blair.
Blair, 67, founded the nonprofit WorldHeart Foundation in 2003 and had described the issue at her no-kill shelter as “some paperwork that has to be dealt with.”
She also insisted that the “animals are fine.”
“I don’t know why mail isn’t used more often to notify somebody,” Blair wrote on Instagram. “Just saying.”
The LA County Department of Regional Planning told TMZ that Blair had ignored 24 attempts over three years to contact her “to ensure animal welfare and check code violations” at the shelter.
Last Friday at 6 a.m., 70 members of law enforcement and other agencies arrived at Blair’s 2.5-acre residence with an “investigative warrant.”
The LA County Department of Regional Planning and the LA County Department of Animal Care and Control were among the agencies involved.
Neighbors had complained of constant “cries and howls from dogs sounding like they’re in distress.”
The search uncovered 251 dogs in kennels, but no dogs “showed signs of illness or injury” and none were seized.
