POLICE in Spain have arrested seven people involved in an illegal big game safari in which hunters paid thousands of pounds to shoot lions, tigers and wolves.

The animals were bought from zoos, kept in rusty cages, then released into the wild for the hunters to shoot them.

Officers raided a farm near Badajoz in the south-western Extremadura region last weekend to break up the illegal hunting ring. The gunmen were arrested as they were about to start hunting a lion and a tiger at the farm in the Sierra del Oro mountain region.

The Guardia Civil’s environmental protection unit discovered a freshly killed tiger and remains of wolves, which are a protected species in Spain.

The man who leased the land bought animals from zoos and kept them in cages until hunters paid to have them set free and could gun them down. Investigators said that each hunter had paid €24,000 (£16,200) to shoot the animals. Police released photographs of the tiger that had been shot and said it had been killed shortly before the raid. A lion and a tiger held in cages were saved by police.

Hunters at the ranch kept animals’ heads, hides or other body parts as trophies and posed for photographs with the dead animals.

The Guardia Civil did not say how long the ranch had been operating or how many animals may have been killed. Their investigation began in the summer after local people reported hearing the sound of gunfire in the area and believed that wolf hunts were being carried out. They became suspicious after discovering the farm had a high, electrified fence. It emerged that this was to stop the animals escaping.

When police searched the farm at the end of last month they discovered the body of a tiger cub. But without any suspects in the area, they were unable to make arrests.

When they raided the farm again on Saturday police heard the sound of gunfire and were able to arrest seven suspects before any more animals were killed.

Lieutenant-Colonel Antonio Basilio Sánchez Rufo, of the Guardia Civil, said: “Supposedly, they were keeping these protected animals and waiting for the opportunity to release them and immediately shoot them.” Hunters used illegal .22 hunting rifles to shoot their quarry. The five men, one woman and a teenager appeared in court accused of offences against protected animals.

The surviving tiger and lion have been sent to a zoo in Málaga. Wolves have recently become re-established in the wild in Spain after years of being endangered.