Walters, OK - (AP) Cotton County prosecutors charge the owner of a herd of horses with one count of animal cruelty.

The count against Frankie Joe Parks stems from the condition of horses he owned and kept on a lease outside of Walters.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and Comanche Nation Law Enforcement were contacted Feb. 13th after the herd was first discovered by two Lawton men who were searching for a hunting lease.

One of them, Carl Boyer, says he contacted authorities because the horses looked like they were starving.

Parks is not Native American but his lease is on Indian trust land.

Lynn Schonchin of the Comanche Environmental Program says six horses were found dead on the property and 17 others were retrieved and brought back to land north of Lawton.

Schonchin said the horses are improving.

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