{"id":381784,"date":"2026-08-26T17:22:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T17:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381784\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T17:22:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T17:22:12","slug":"martin-county-animal-hoarding-case-ends-in-no-contest-plea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/381784\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin County animal hoarding case ends in no contest plea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Gail Giustino pleaded no contest Tuesday to two animal abuse charges in what officials call Martin County&#8217;s worst animal hoarding case, a case that began with the <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wptv.com\/news\/local-news\/our-community-stuart-martin-county-okeechobee\/martin-county-authorities-investigating-extreme-hoarding-and-animal-rescue-case-at-stuart-home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">rescue of more than 100 animals<\/a> from a property near Hobe Sound.<\/p>\n<p>Giustino, a 77-year-old mail carrier, will serve two years of probation and is prohibited from having any contact with animals. A no-contest plea means she did not admit guilt but chose not to fight the charges at trial.<\/p>\n<p>WATCH BELOW: Martin County animal hoarding case ends in no contest plea<\/p>\n<p>Martin County&#8217;s worst animal hoarding case ends in no contest plea<\/p>\n<p>Attorney Josh Deckard addressed the sentence outside the Stuart courthouse.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While there was no jail time imposed, my client is required to be on probation for a period of two years \u2026 the most important caveat that she has to follow is that she has no contact with any animals,&#8221; Deckard said.<\/p>\n<p>The judge also ordered Giustino to undergo a mental health evaluation and follow any recommended treatment. Violating probation could mean up to two years in county jail.<\/p>\n<p>A total of 108 animals were rescued from the property. Tish Ott, who adopted one of those animals \u2014 a dog named Gracie Anne \u2014 described the conditions the animals were living in.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No air conditioning, bad ventilation, lots of fecal matter everywhere,&#8221; Ott said.<\/p>\n<p>WPTV was there when Ott first met Gracie, and Ott has since adopted her, nursing her back to health and documenting every step on <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/19F67P75Sp\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When I saw her, she had such a look of hopelessness in her eyes, and the moment that I saw that, I just felt that I needed to step up,&#8221; Ott said. &#8220;Now she sleeps in my bed, she&#8217;s carried around in a snuggle bag 20 hours a day \u2014 and as you can see, she&#8217;s got hope, and she&#8217;s gorgeous.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ott reflected on what the animals endured.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;No animal deserves to ever, ever live in a situation like that,&#8221; Ott said.<\/p>\n<p>This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.<\/p>\n<p>            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1787764932_230_.jpeg\" alt=\"REP_CARD_Samantha-Gutierrez_PALM-BEACH-GARDENS.jpg\"  width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><\/p>\n<p>WPTV<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. \u2014 Gail Giustino pleaded no contest Tuesday to two animal abuse charges in what officials&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":381785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[144155,28,142369,1160,171,173,172,179,12758],"class_list":["post-381784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-animal-hoarding","tag-florida","tag-gail-giustino","tag-martin-county","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news","tag-treasure-coast","tag-wptv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381784","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=381784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/381785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}