A Queens animal hoarder convicted of 108 counts of animal cruelty dodged jail time at her sentencing Monday but was banned from owning pets for 10 years and was also given three years of probation.
Elizabeth Grant, 50, balked about signing the documents imposing the ban at her sentencing in Queens Supreme Court, whining, “I can’t live without animals. I’m not married, I have no children. They are my children.”
Judge Stephanie Zaro — appearing increasingly fed up with Grant’s refusal to sign the papers — countered, “I don’t care if you love them. They were hurt, and no more animals will be hurt by you.”
If Grant loved the 55 cats, 12 dogs and two turtles rescued by the ASPCA from her squalid Jackson Heights home, she had a funny way of showing it.
A cop who came to the 82nd Street home on an unrelated matter in January 2016 glimpsed — and smelled — the horror show through an open door, officials said.
When the cop returned a couple of weeks later with ASPCA backup, they found the severely neglected animals living in a trash-strewn hovel, lined with fur and marked with an overwhelming stench of urine and feces, authorities said.
One cat was so gravely ill it appeared unable to walk.
More than 50 of the animals have since been adopted out to loving homes, but 12 of them — including a pup named Dorothy — had to be euthanized, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
“Maybe I loved too much, maybe there were too many,” Grant blubbered on Monday. “I only take pleasure in giving love and help and sustenance.”
After imposing the 10-year pet ban — one of the conditions of Grant’s three-year probation sentence, which also includes mandatory counseling and random home inspections — Zaro searched for a word to describe the hoarder.
“The word that came to my mind was ‘delusional,’” Zaro said. “You don’t believe you neglected them, but the pictures don’t lie.”