Warning: This post contains imagery some may find distressing. Authorities removed 52 live tigers from the famous tourist attraction.
Tuesday's grim discovery came as Thai authorities, working alongside the Wildlife Friends Foundation, raided the temple to remove all the animals following allegations of animal cruelty.
The Buddhist temple, in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, is a tourist favorite with thousands visiting every year and snapping a picture with a tiger. But animal charities have called for the temple to be shut down for years.
Dario Pignatelli / Getty Images
"These animals were never registered with the authorities and who knows how the met this grizzly end," the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) said in a statement on their Facebook page.
The group, which has campaigned for years for the tourist attraction to be closed, called again for a total shutdown to end the "hideous" practices of the temple.
Tom Taylor, assistant director of the WFFT, said his group "wasn't surprised" at the discovery of the bodies.
"There has been a lot of controversy around the temple," he told BuzzFeed News. Taylor added he was hugely grateful to the efforts of the provincial police force, as well as the Department of National Parks (DNP), who were working on removing the animals from the facility.
"We have been campaigning for years and it had seemed like an endless battle," he added. "We are flabbergasted that it is finally happening and the temple is being brought to justice."
Dario Pignatelli / Getty Images
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