A Mississippi man who had dogs that starved has been sentenced to six months in jail after being convicted of animal cruelty.

The Natchez Democrat reports 45-year-old Kelvin King of Natchez has also been fined $1,000.

An Adams County Sheriff’s Office investigator, Karren Ewing, said she responded to a call March 18 and found four kennels at the back of some property. Three were closed and had decomposing dog carcasses with no food or water.

She said a malnourished dog was in the fourth kennel.

King testified that he moved and left his dogs on his sister’s property. He said he paid a man to feed the animals and thought they were being tended.

Defense attorney Timothy Blalock says nobody could prove King intentionally starved the dogs.