Prosecutors have filed 72 animal cruelty charges against a Thornton couple after authorities discovered 50 dead animals and 2,000 others including hedgehogs, snakes and mice in a shed and basement reeking of urine and feces.

The grisly discovery was made the same day the third of three family members was sentenced on animal cruelty charges for abuses by members of the Kubic family at their pet stores and an unauthorized rodent factory.

Kenneth Mark Kubic, 63, and Lynn Denise Kubic, 56, the former owners of two Jurassic Pets stores, were arrested on 36 felony charges each in July, but their charges had been sealed until recently, according to Adams County District Court records.

“Just months after being convicted of cruelty to animals, Kenneth and Lynn Kubic were causing small animals to suffer and die in hellish conditions in their basement and shed,” Daphna Nachminovitch of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said in a Wednesday news release. “These are serial animal abusers who must be barred from ever harboring an animal again.”

Two flooded bins held dead mice and maggots, and an additional mouse bin was filling with water. Many of the surviving mice were kept in filthy, severely crowded bins, PETA officials report.

Read the full story at The Denver Post.

Photo credit PETA

Photo credit PETA