The "worst animal hoarding case" a Florida sheriff has ever seen is now expanding as more animals are being recovered.Some of the rescued animals already have been reunited with owners who said they’d given up hope of ever seeing them again.Gail Giustino, a 77-year-old mail carrier, was arrested July 20 after authorities found more than 100 animals held in feces-filled cages in her Stuart home.She’d been "collecting cats" she found along her mail route, Martin County Sheriff John Budensiek said.Gail Giustino, 77, has been charged with one count of animal cruelty and one count of confinement of animals without sufficient exercise.
(Martin County Sheriff's Office)RIDGLAN FARMS RESCUE BEAGLES FIND NEW LIFE HELPING VETERANS OVERCOME WAR TRAUMA WITH PAWS OF WARWith no air conditioning or ventilation, the home was "probably 110 degrees" on the late July day when the animals were removed, Budensiek said in a news conference on July 20 outside Giustino’s home."We were coming out here thinking maybe 15, 20, 30 cats," he told reporters, as people wearing white hazmat suits carried out cages holding dozens of cats and at least a dozen small dogs.There was "a foot of animal feces" in parts of the house, Budensiek said.Some of the caged cats were held fast in feces that had hardened like concrete.
Staffers had to smash bricks of feces from around the cats’ legs to allow them to move, Sarah Fisher, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of Treasure Coast, told Fox News Digital."When we cracked the door…the stench was unreal," Budensiek said."The air was stifling hot." He went on to say, "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."Investigators recovered animals from inside the home of Gail Giustino in Stuart, Fla., on July 20, 2026.
(Martin County Sheriff's Office)PARTNER OF WOMAN KILLED BY DOGS RECENTLY SAVED NEIGHBOR WOUNDED IN SIMILAR ATTACK: CO...