The Detroit Zoo is serving as a sanctuary to more than 1,000 mammals, reptiles and spiders seized from a Texas exotic animal dealer.

The Macomb Daily reports that the 1,100 animals now at the Detroit Zoo home were among nearly 27,000 animals seized Dec. 15 in the nation's largest exotic animal rescue effort.

After a judge ruled the animals will not be returned to U.S. Global Exotics, Detroit Zoo employees spent seven weeks helping care for the animals at a temporary site in Dallas.

On Thursday, 1,100 of the homeless animal were moved to the Detroit Zoo, including five wallabies, four sloths and hundreds of reptiles, spiders and amphibians.

Zoo official Scott Carter says zoo workers are now working to help place hundreds more of the seized animals with other accredited zoos and sanctuaries.