An Arizona man has been arrested after police found nearly 200 dead animals in his freezer.
ABC News reports Michael Patrick Turland, 43, was arrested Wednesday at his home, and has been charged with 94 counts of animal cruelty.
Law enforcement discovered on April 3 approximately 183 animals, including dogs, turtles, lizards, birds, snakes, mice, rats and rabbits, in Turland’s freezer at his residence in Golden Valley, a rural community in western Arizona.
Turland’s arrest came on the heels of an animal welfare check earlier this month, when a local woman informed police that Turland hadn’t returned snakes she’d lent him for breeding.
“Several of the animals appeared to have been frozen alive due to their body positioning,” the Sheriff’s Office said, adding that Turland kept the animals in a “large-sized chest freezer.”
A statement by the Sheriff’s Office added that Turland admitted “to placing some of the animals in the freezer when they were still alive.”
As of Thursday, Turland was still being held in jail. Online court records did not appear to show the case, and it was not clear if he had an attorney who could speak on his behalf. He is facing 94 counts of felony animal cruelty.
