Some of the images below may be distressing for some readers.

A dentist was arrested for allegedly killing thousands of protected jaguars and other endangered animals, according to a local Brazilian prosecutor's office.

Authorities from the Brazilian state of Acre made the arrest as part of a sting involving the surveillance of suspected illegal poachers, according to a .

The group allegedly hunted and killed thousands of endangered animals, including jaguars and deer with protected status.

The poachers allegedly used group texts on their cellphones to organize the hunts, according to authorities who monitored their conversations for three months.

During that time, the poachers allegedly killed eight jaguars, 13 capybara, 10 collared peccary and two red brocket deer.

But police also allege there鈥檚 evidence that the longest-serving member of the gang, dentist Temistocles Barbosa Freire, is suspected to have killed more than a thousand jaguars since 1987.

Freire and six other men were arrested and the state is laying criminal charges, which include illegal hunting and using firearms without a permit.

None of the people charged appeared to be hunters by trade, as their occupations include doctor, government worker, farmer, prison officer and electrician.

The prosecutor鈥檚 office added that, based on their involvement in the hunts, each could face varying prison sentences and fines if found guilty.

The jaguar is listed as 鈥渘ear threatened'鈥� and its population is declining, according to the .

This status is lower on their scale than 鈥渧ulnerable,鈥� 鈥渆ndangered,鈥� and 鈥渆xtinct.鈥�

The international group鈥檚 website describes the Red List as the 鈥渨orld's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of plant and animal species.鈥�

Jaguars are the largest cats in Latin America and the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora鈥檚 lists them in , which stipulates that all international trade in jaguars or their body parts is prohibited.

There are currently bans on hunting jaguars in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, French Guiana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Suriname, the United States and Venezuela.