A Kern County woman accused of 41 felony animal cruelty counts denies the charges against her, and pleads to get her animals back. But officers say it's one of the worst cases they've seen.

Thursday, the 15 dogs and 37 cats were at the Kern County Animal Control shelter in Mojave after being seized from the Cummings Valley home of 59-year-old Anita Gilbert.

From jail, Gilbert told Eyewitness News she cared for all the animals like they were her family.

"I was a severely-abused child, so I don't have family. But, my animals are my family. They're like my children. They're all named," says Gilbert.

As Eyewitness News first reported Wednesday night, animal control officers seized the animals from a large house and big steel structure on Bear Valley Road.

Resource Management Agency Director Dave Price says the officers who went to get the animals found unsanitary and dangerous conditions.

"The conditions were were so apparent, so putrid -- that our officers could only spend several moments, literally minutes in there at a time before they had to be spelled."

Price says they found dogs in cages with feces up to their stomachs. He says there were feces and open pet food cans all through the big warehouse.

Gilbert says she kept the place clean. The dogs had good-sized runs, and she'd just cleaned them up enough that "you could eat off the floor."

She says the cats usually stayed in the house, though they were moved into the warehouse when the house needed some renovations. Gilbert says some cats then were kept in cages, but that was temporary.

But, Gilbert says she just got back about ten days ago, after being in Florida for four months to be treated for bone cancer. Gilbert says she paid someone to care for the animals while she was gone.

"The whole time I was in Florida getting chemo, somebody was supposed to be taking care of the animals -- and she let it go."

Gilbert says some conditions had gotten "dirty" -- but says the animals were well-fed, and she got medical care for them.

But, Animal Control says two of the seized cats had leukemia and had to be euthanized. Gilbert was horrified to hear that, and demanded that a judge issue an order to prevent any more animals from being put down.

"I need, I need that protective order to keep them from dying. Please Judge Oglesby -- if you could do that tonight." Gilbert says she's appeared before Judge John Oglesby before in Mojave court on other matters.

Animal control officers say they also found 14 dead animals in bags in a freezer. Gilbert denied there were that many animals in the freezer, and said she was waiting to bury them.

Gilbert says she got unwanted animals from people, even law officers -- and rescued many from animal shelters. She also says Kern County Animal Control Director Denise Haynes gave her five dogs to rescue late last year.

Eyewitness News asked Resource Management's Dave Price about that -- he'd never heard about it.

"If that were to be the case, I expect there would be some record of that," he told Eyewitness News. "Although, in and of itself -- unless she had been an approved rescue organization by the department -- that certainly would not be the case."

Gilbert said for years, she's often taken her animals to the Beverly Hills Small Animal Hospital to get them needed care. Eyewitness News called that office, and they had no record she'd been a customer.

Gilbert also mentioned a "Dr. Stine" as a vet who cared for the animals at that facility. Staff at the Beverly Hills hospital referred Eyewitness News to another office, they said their Dr. Stine had no knowledge of Gilbert.

Gilbert also said she was working with the Animal Legal Defense Fund. Eyewitness News called that organization. Spokeswoman Lisa Franzetta said she had never heard of Gilbert.

Gilbert is set to be in court Friday morning. She says she wants her animals protected from being euthanized. Gilbert says she was taking good care of the cats and dogs -- and trying to save them.

"I will fight to the end to get every lat animal back," she says.