{"id":381678,"date":"2026-08-26T14:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381678\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T14:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T14:58:09","slug":"mail-carrier-gets-2-years-of-probation-animal-ban-in-martin-county-hoarding-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381678\/","title":{"rendered":"Mail carrier gets 2 years of probation, animal ban in Martin County hoarding case"},"content":{"rendered":"

STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Gail Giustino, the Stuart woman accused of hoarding more than 100 animals<\/a> inside her home, pleaded no contest Tuesday to two misdemeanor animal-cruelty-related charges and was sentenced to two years of probation.<\/p>\n

As part of her sentence, Giustino must undergo a mental health evaluation and have no contact with animals of any species. She will not serve jail time.<\/p>\n

Giustino, 77, was arrested July 20 after Martin County sheriff\u2019s<\/a> deputies, Animal Services and Fire Rescue crews executed a search warrant at her Southwest Meadowlark Circle home. Sheriff John Budensiek called it the worst animal hoarding case he had seen in Martin County.<\/p>\n

She was charged with animal cruelty and confining an animal without sufficient food or water. Investigators said Giustino, a U.S. Postal Service letter carrier, had collected cats she encountered along her mail route.<\/p>\n

Gail Giustino received two years\u2019 probation and an animal-contact ban after pleading no contest in Martin County\u2019s major animal hoarding case.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Authorities initially removed 80 cats and 12 dogs. As more animals were captured after the search, the count rose to 100 animals \u2014 83 cats and 17 dogs.<\/p>\n

The Humane Society of the Treasure Coast<\/a> later received 97 cats and 21 dogs from Giustino\u2019s home, operations director Lori Tucker told CBS12 News on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

All of the dogs from the case have now been adopted, Tucker said. Ten cats remain available for adoption.<\/p>\n

See also: 2 arrested in string of firearm burglaries across Martin and St. Lucie counties<\/a><\/p>\n

Investigators said the animals were living without adequate food, water, ventilation or air conditioning, and that portions of the home contained several inches of animal waste. A HAZMAT team was called to ventilate the home as crews removed animals, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Several animals were found to have microchips, leading to reunions with owners who had been searching for missing pets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"STUART, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 Gail Giustino, the Stuart woman accused of hoarding more than 100 animals inside her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381679,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-381678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381678"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381678\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}