BATON ROUGE - East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s deputies say they arrested a man after they received numerous complaints reporting that he was keeping malnourished dogs in his backyard.

28-year-old Justin Wimms was booked into the parish prison on one count of simple cruelty to animals.

Deputies said the backyard of Wimms’ Aspen Place residence was overgrown with tall grass and weeds and pit bulls of various colors were chained in the yard. All appeared to be malnourished, according to responding deputies.

EBRSO deputies made contact with the man’s sister at the residence, who said she had been away from the house for two months and didn’t look at the dogs before she left. She did not remember the last time Wimms had even been to the residence to water and feed the dogs. One of the dogs exhibited several sores over its body, which appeared to be from a recent fight with another of the canines in the yard.

An Animal Control officer reported to the scene and confirmed that the pets were indeed severely malnourished and one of the pit bulls had mange. The officer said he would seize the dog with mange for its safety after advising the condition of the dog constituted animal cruelty for failure to provide proper veterinary care.

While on the scene, deputies said two of the dogs started to fight, causing extreme damage to each other. Both dogs drew blood from the other and posed a significant risk to deputies and the Animal Control officer. Both of those dogs were also seized. The Animal Control officer said all of the dogs would be seized after the officer was unable to gain contact information for Wimms or locate the man.