Animal control workers 'needed crisis counselling', left shattered by horrific warehouse of rats, snakes An emaciated black tree monitor found inside the facility, with visible vertebrae and missing skin on her nose. The level of animal cruelty left rescue workers traumatized. ANIMAL rescue workers were left vomiting and in need of crisis counselling after discovering 20,000 cruelly neglected rats and reptiles living in horrific circumstances. Animal control workers arrived at a warehouse owned by a wholesale distributor of snakes and rodents, and what they found left them emotionally shattered, gasping for air, and in need of counselling, AP reports. The warehouse, full of dying, starving and emaciated rats and reptiles, came to light after an undercover whistleblower filmed the animals' miserable circumstances including rats and snakes slammed into poles, stuffed into boxes and left to die covered in maggots. Some desperate, starving rats were even eating each other alive. The shocked rescue workers were left gasping for air by the overpowering smell of urine, feces and decaying, sick animals in the warehouse. Seeing the abused animals and sickening physical conditions and the stench of death and decay took a severe physical and emotional toll on rescuers, Marine Humane Society Captain Cindy Machado, told AP. People were throwing up from the overpowering ammonia fumes from urine, and "there were times you had to run outside just to catch a breath of fresh air," said Ms Machado. Some workers broke down emotionally and could not continue, while others ended up sick with sore throats from the fumes and disease. "I had some idea what to expect but little could have prepared me for the overwhelming stench of death and decay you could smell from outside of the facility," said PETA investigator Daphna Nachminovitch. On the inside it was overpowering. Owner Mitchell Steven Behm and manager David Delgado have been arrested and charged with more than 100 counts of felony animal cruelty at the facility in lake Lake Elsinore, California. The warehouse had 18,400 feeder rats bred to be fed to snakes, more than 600 snakes, black tree monitors, tokay geckos and sulcata tortoises. Most of the rats were stuffed in overcrowded bins without food. The water system didn't work, so most of them were drowning or dying of thirst - and some were even desperately eating one another alive, AP reports. The undercover whistleblower photographed and filmed rats being grabbed by their tails and slammed against poles, stomped on, shot with BB guns and frozen alive or drowned. Workers said the level of neglect and abuse left many animals beyond help, forcing workers to enthuanize them at the site. The owners did not want to "waste money" ethanizing sick or dying animals, with Mr Behm reportedly telling his workers the money came from the rats, so not to waste cash on caring for reptiles, PETA's website says. Many sick, emaciated reptiles were left to waste away or die in pain, covered in sores and maggots, PETA says. Many reptiles were kept in boxes on shelves, crammed into plastic cups and denied food or water or sunlight for a least a week.