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Eighty cats have been rescued from the home of a mail carrier who collected strays along her route.
Authorities braved the stench and heat of the secluded home in Stuart, Florida, where the animals were being kept in squalor.
“We're talking about in some places a foot of animal feces in that house,” Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek told reporters Monday. “There is no air conditioning in that house. So when we cracked the door on it earlier today, the stench was unreal.”
The 77-year-old woman living in the house, Gail Giustino, was charged with one count of Animal Cruelty and one count of Confinement of Animals Without Sufficient Exercise.
Authorities were tipped off a couple of weeks ago about a woman who worked for the Postal Service and was “stealing or collecting cats along her route,” Budensiek said.
“She didn't steal somebody's pet, but she was likely collecting feral cats,” the sheriff emphasized.
In addition to the 80 cats, 12 dogs were rescued Monday. While no animals are believed to be dead, their condition is unknown.
Budensiek said the animals were fed, but there was no ventilation in the house and they were never brought outside.
“They've been confined to that animal jail really for however long she's been hoarding these pets in there,” the sheriff said.
Budensiek explained that the sheriff’s office was “not trying to demonize” Giustino, explaining that they didn’t believe she was intentionally abusing the animals, but rather was suffering from some mental health issue.
“We truly believe that Gail thinks she's doing the right thing, but she's doing it the wrong way,” the sheriff said.
Budensiek noted that this wasn’t the first time authorities had to get involved at the home.
Giustino was issued up to 65 civil citations at least a decade ago “for different types of animals that she was confining in her house.”
Budensiek said the sheriff’s office tried to work with Giustino in the past week, but she was “not cooperative.”
When their animal control unit “would come to the house, she would do anything she could to try to stop them from seeing what was going on here,” the sheriff said.
Eventually, the sheriff’s office went “the criminal route” and obtained a search warrant to enter the house, Budensiek said.
“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, and then to keep her from repossessing animals, and then to move her into mental health court so she can get the help that she needs to try to deal with what we've dealt with today and whatever needs she has,” the sheriff explained.
The number of animals rescued would’ve been higher, Budensiek said, but Giustino dropped off about 15 animals at two different facilities in Martin County in the last week.
Budensiek said this was the “worst case of animal hoarding that I've seen here in Martin County.”
The sheriff’s office’s Animal Services Division and the Humane Society of the Treasure Coast have assessed all the animals and provided immediate care, according to a Facebook update.
The owners of five animals have been identified as of Tuesday afternoon.
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