Man fined after 700 frozen and taxidermied animals found on Victorian property

A man has been convicted and fined $10,000 after the discovery of hundreds of taxidermied and frozen native animals at a property in Kyneton. Photograph: Conservation Regulator Victoria

The white-walled room packed with magpies, galahs and sulphur-crested cockatoos, foxes and possums is eerily quiet. As a video pans across shelves filled with these and many other species, there is no flapping or squawking or hissing; the animals are frozen and silent.

They are among the more than 700 native animals that were found illegally taxidermied and frozen that were seized from the property of a Victorian antiques store owner last year.