Six tigers have been rescued from horrible conditions after being left to starve to death by their owner.
Animal rights activists in Ukraine were tipped off about the tigers on December 30 and discovered the beasts kept in a makeshift cage on Vodnikov Island in Kiev.
Evgheniya Prokopenko, one of the activists who joined the operation, shared video and pictures of the rescue operation.
According to local media, the tigers were locked in a private club that had apparently fallen into disuse.
It's understood that the owner, who has not been named, is a well-known Ukrainian but has moved abroad.
Evgheniya explained: "Almost half of the staff of the Holosiivskyi police department visited the site of the 'Tiger Club' together with rescue workers where we found six tigers in terrible conditions.
"We got a call saying they are being kept in a tiny aviary and that they are keeping people awake by roaring day and night.
"The aviaries where they are being housed were made of improvised materials.
"The conditions were shocking, three tigers lived in an 86-square-foot aviary in mud and their own waste, with no possibility to find a dry place."
According to the lawyer, the animals were so thirsty they were even drinking the liquid from the floor.
She added: "Another mature tiger lived in a 32-square-foot aviary while another two stayed in another one just a little larger."
When police arrived they found security guards looking after the place but nobody caring for the tigers.
Lawyer Prokopenko added: "We have launched criminal proceedings according to the first part of Article 299 (Cruelty to animals) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
"The suspect may face up to three years of imprisonment.
We are now solving the issue by taking the animals to special institutions."
A journalist from the 'Ukrainskaya Pravda' newspaper, Yaroslava Koba, claimed that she had identified the owner as a person named Vladimir Bulankov and claimed to have contacted him.
She said that he had promised to be back in the country by tomorrow and to make the tigers a top priority.
He said that his plan was to hand them over to the ‘Feldman Ekopark’ zoo in the Kharkov city which is in north-eastern Ukraine.
