A Comer man is facing animal cruelty charges in the wake of an investigation by the Madison County Sheriff’s Office and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Sheriff’s deputies on June 13 arrested Hershel Clint Canady Jr., 27, on 11 counts of cruelty to animals and one felony charge of theft by deception.

Canady operates a farm off S&H Road north of Comer, where he sells horses, ponies and donkeys. Madison County sheriff’s Investigator Chris Guest said Thursday that Canady was not physically abusing the animals, but he was neglecting the animals by not giving them proper medical care.

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“There are 11 (animals) that we can definitely make cases on where he refused to get them medical care,” Guest said.

The USDA, which has an equine abuse unit, has four open complaints against the farm, according to a spokeswoman for the office in Atlanta.

Canady declined to comment on his arrest Thursday. However, he denied the charges and referred questions to his attorney Mayes Davison of Royston.

“Mr. Canady is in shock that he has been charged with animal cruelty,” Davison said, “because he’s complied with ever aspect that we know of in the requirements to take care of his animals.”

Canady also advertises on his Facebook page that his goal is to purchase horses at auction to keep them from being slaughtered, then relocate them to new homes.

The felony deception charge, according to Guest, stemmed from the sale of more than a dozen donkeys to a woman in Arizona, whom he said purchased the animals with the understanding “they had a clean bill of health and everything was fine.”

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However, Guest said at least five of the donkeys died and the remainder were tested by a veterinarian and were found to have an assortment of disease. Those surviving animals have been placed in quarantine, he said.

“She has spent thousands on them so far,” Guest said.

The investigator said efforts were made to correct the problem at Canady’s farm without legal action.

“Animal control has warned him; trying to get this taken care of without any actions being taken. But he pretty much ignored them,” he said.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Madison County man faces 11 counts of animal cruelty involved equine