GOLDEN VALLEY, AZ — Mohave County Sheriff’s Office says a man has been arrested on nearly 100 counts of felony animal cruelty after he was accused of freezing animals alive.
Officials were called to a Golden Valley home earlier this month when someone called to report multiple dead animals found in a freezer, including some that may have belonged to the person who reported them.
When deputies and animal control officers arrived at the home, they found 183 dead animals including dogs, turtles, lizards, birds, snakes, mice, rats, and rabbits.
MCSO says several of the animals appeared to have been frozen alive.
Officials could not make contact with the suspect, 43-year-old Michael Patrick Turland, or his wife, until Wednesday.
Turland was taken into custody and admitted to freezing some of the animals while they were still alive.
Officials say Turland made a deal with the woman who reported the dead animals that he would take her snakes, breed them and later return them. However, the woman who reported the incident said she was unable to make contact with him to get her snakes back.
MCSO is still trying to make contact with his wife, who is said to be named Brooklyn Beck.
