Police discover horror scene at animal 'retirement home'

John Weinhart liked to say he ran a retirement home for wild animals used by the entertainment industry.

What the police found when they turned up at his desert home outside Los Angeles earlier this week, though, was more akin to a horror movie.

The Riverside County sheriff's deputies, accompanied by animal welfare experts, counted more than 90 dead tigers, including 58 cubs stuffed into freezers. The stench of corpses and animal droppings was overwhelming. The position of some of the carcasses suggested the animals had been tethered to abandoned cars and left to die in the hot sun. A pick-up truck was filled with animal skins.

"It was disgusting," Charles Traisi, the manager of a wildlife rehabilitation centre in San Diego, said after agreeing to take possession of the surviving tiger cubs. "There was no way to walk around the property without walking through animal faeces or on the bones and remains of dead animals. The filth was everywhere."

Mr Weinhart was arrested with his companion, Marla Smith, and a vet. The eight-year-old son of Mr Weinhart and Ms Smith, who was exposed to the dirt and decay, was taken into the care of social services.

The couple face one count of child endangerment and multiple charges of animal cruelty are expected.