In what Fish & Game officers are calling one of the worst poaching cases in a century, a Gilroy man poached and killed hundreds of birds, many of them protected species that investigators found frozen in his freezers.

State fish and game wardens described the Pacheco Pass property owned by Peter Ignatius Ciraulo as "beyond anything" they had ever seen. Most of the 335 birds were frozen whole, stuffed in freezers that could barely close shut because they were so full of the dead animals, investigators said. Seven live and crippled snow geese also were found in a pond at the property, but had to be euthanized because they were in such bad shape.

"The amount of damage this poacher caused to California's waterfowl is sickening," said Patrick Foy, a warden for California Department of Fish and Game. "We have no indication that he was trying to sell them, so it doesn't many any sense. We see enough of habitual poachers to know that they kill these animals for no apparent reason."

Though most of the dead birds included specimens of nearly every type of waterfowl species that migrate to the state, there were also many non-game, protected species, such as the Sandhill Crane and Tundra Swan.

Reached at home Monday evening, Ciraulo called the case "a lie."

"I legally had the right to have every bird I had in my possession,'' Ciraulo said. "I am 43-years-old and I've never had any more than than a stinking ticket in my life."

Ciraulo pleaded no contest earlier this month to three misdemeanors of waterfowl poaching: failure to declare a migratory game bird; failure to show game upon demand by a fish and game warden; and illegally possessing more than the waterfowl limit of 14 ducks and eight geese. He had 253 ducks and 58 geese. Ciraulo was placed on two years probation, ordered to pay a $7,105 fine and to perform community service at Ducks Unlimited or other California Waterfowl Association projects. He is also banned from all hunting in California until Feb. 1.

"Not since the market poaching days of the early 1900s have we seen waterfowl poaching of this scope,'' Nancy Foley, chief of Fish & Game's law enforcement division said in a statement.

Wardens Kyle Kroll and Greg Grinton began investigating Ciraulo in early January after becoming suspicious of his property. Upon further investigation, they discovered evidence that he had killed a swan and eight geese and had hidden goose breasts in his jacket. Then they found the freezers inside his Pacheco Pass area home and in a storage area outside. At one point, Ciraulo told the wardens that he had eaten some of the birds but none of those found had been processed for consumption. Apparently, Ciraulo hunted down the animals throughout the Central Valley, Foy said.

"There really is no rational explanation for any of this," Foy said.