GILLIAM, La. (AP) — Authorities say they arrested a Louisiana man Monday on animal cruelty charges after finding more than 250 starving cattle on land he leased.

Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator says 49-year-old Tremecius Mondell Dixon, of Shreveport, was arrested on four counts of aggravated cruelty to animals.

Prator says in a news release that deputies were asked last week to check the herd’s condition. He says a deputy and livestock agent found the animals were malnourished, on overgrazed land without an adequate water supply.

The statement says a veterinarian described their condition as “severely poor.”