OLDMANS TWP.

— More than 20 animals, most living in cages, burned to death here after a fire engulfed the horse trailer where they were being housed, authorities said.

It appears to be a tragic ending to an animal hoarding case.

According to New Jersey State Police Lt. Stephen Jones, 12 cats, five dogs and three birds perished in the blaze on a farm off New Road in a rural section of the township. The fire was first reported at 4:40 p.m. on Tuesday.

The cause remains under investigation, according to Jones, but unofficial reports are that a propane heater being used to provide warmth to the animals could have been the cause.

Brenda Rhodes, 60, who cared for the animals and who has a long history of animal hoarding, has been charged with 20 counts of animal cruelty in the case, according to Jones.

Rhodes was being held Wednesday in the Salem County Correctional Facility in Mannington Township on $10,000 bail on the charges and on outstanding warrants.

Rhodes’ last known address was Vineland, but state police said she was considered homeless and had apparently had been living in the trailer with the animals.

The scene after the fire was sickening.

The cages that housed the animals had been pulled from the trailer by firefighters. The metal cages were bent and twisted from the heat of the fire.

Two large dogs, their coats charred black, lay dead with their blood-red entrails protruding from their bodies.

The property is not owned by Rhodes. Reportedly there are also horses and goats on the property owned by Rhodes, but that could not be confirmed.

Among the birds that perished were said to be two macaws, large tropical birds.

Jones said the case remains under investigation by Trooper Erik Ariz at the State Police’s Woodstown Station.

In September 2010, the Cumberland County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals rescued a golden Labrador retriever from her care in a Vineland home where she lived.

The SPCA also discovered she had 50 other animals in the home, including chickens, cats, dogs, goats and pigs,

In 2008, animal control officials confiscated 36 cats from the same home.

In April 2007 Rhodes received third degree burns when a house she rented in Alloway Township caught on fire.

In that fire at 349 Commissioners Pike, nine cats, five dogs, and numerous birds and other small animals — either hamsters or guinea pigs — being kept in the house by Rhodes perished in the fire.