An Arizona man has been charged after police found 183 animals in a freezer.
Turtles, dogs, mice, rats, snakes, rabbits and more, were all found in a freezer at 43-year-old Michael Patrick Turland’s Golden Valley home on April 3. Police found the animals during a welfare check after a Phoenix woman told them she’s given Turland snakes to breed.
The property manager told the sheriff’s office that Turland had moved out of the state and left the freezer behind. Police arrested Turland after he returned to the residence where the animals were discovered. Based on the animals’ body composition, the animals were alive when they were placed in the freezer.
There are no details on why Turland put the animals in the freezer. “When interviewed, Turland eventually admitted to placing some of the animals in the freezer when they were still alive,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement, NBC News reports.
Turland was arrested on 94 animal cruelty counts.
