WICHITA COUNTY (KFDX/KJTL) — An Oklahoma man has been charged with cruelty to animals after Electra Animal Control officers called police to a house on West Michigan where they found several bodies of dead dogs in August.

Caleb Boswell, home listed as Cartwright, Okla., is in the Wichita County Jail with a bond set at $10,000 on a charge listed in his affidavit as Cruelty to Non-Livestock Animals: Torture.

Electra Animal Control officers said they had been to the location nine times previously to check the welfare of dogs, and on August 11, 2023, they requested Electra police respond to the location.

When the officers arrived, they said they smelled a foul odor.

The animal control officer on-scene told the officers they had been notified by a man
after he saw three or four dead dogs hanging in a shed.

The animal control officer told police they went to the home and found one dead dog with a black rope around its neck in a trash can and the skeletal remains of another that she knew to belonged to the other man.

They said the remains of three other dogs were located in the trash can. Due to the conditions of the remains, the cause of death could not be determined.

The police officer and animal control officer determined, however, that the dogs had been treated cruelly by not having food and water provided, were in a hazardous environment due to high weeds and trash and suffered unnecessary pain from starvation.

Police said they found no water or food for dogs on the property, and water had been disconnected last February.

In one previous inspection, animal control officers said they removed a dead dog that had been attacked by other dogs. They said they made several attempts to get the two owners to sign over the dogs to them, but the men refused.

Police requested arrest warrants for both Boswell and the other man on cruelty charges. At the last check, the other reported owner had not been arrested or charged.