A Lyle man has been charged with two counts of felony animal cruelty after two dogs were found dead in a kennel — starved, dehydrated and exposed to the winter elements.

Bond was set at $20,000 or $5,000 with conditions for Jacob Joshua McAlister, 30, who was arrested on an outstanding warrant.

According to the police report, the Lyle police chief received a call April 2 from the Mower County Sheriff’s Office, who was seeking the defendant after discovering two dead Labrador retrievers in a kennel on the north side of a machine shed in Lyle.

The dogs — one black lab and one chocolate lab — had been obviously left unattended and were covered in a large amount of feces, records show.

Police contacted Barry Rush, an agent for the Humane Society, and took photographs of the scene.

In an interview with the defendant’s father, the father told a deputy, “during that last cold spell, (the defendant) let his dogs starve to death.”

On April 3, Rush, a deputy and a veterinarian met at the scene. The dogs were believed to have been dead for a few days in the kennel. They were very skinny with exposed hip bones. Several inches of feces covered the kennel floor, and water was frozen in buckets.

A neighbor reported to have not heard the dogs barking since January.

The vet determined the dogs died of starvation, dehydration and exposure. Their stomachs were empty, and they had no body fat. The chocolate lab — which appeared to have been partially eaten by the black dog — weighed 42.5 pounds. The black lab weighed 33.1 pounds.

McAlister was apprehended by the Austin Police Department on an outstanding warrant and placed in jail.

During interviews, McAlister told police had had owned the dogs since they were little. He said their names were “Johnny” and “Rusty,” and he saw them and fed them every day. He claimed they were skinny because they were “very active.” He said he found them dead in February, but did not bury them because the ground was frozen.

McAlister said he left for Texas in March, but “did not want to see them like that” after he returned.

The defendant’s girlfriend reportedly said he had been feeding only one dog, and had told her someone would take care of it while he was away. At a later point in the interview, she said “they” when referring to the dogs. She claimed she had not visited the residence in many months.

The defendant is charged with two counts of felony animal cruelty for depriving an animal of food, water and shelter from Jan. 1 through March 31.

McAlister is scheduled for arraignment in Mower County District Court April 23.