A California man has pleaded no contest to one count of animal cruelty connected to 41 horses removed from a Nevada County, California, property last year.

In 2015, Nevada County sheriff’s personnel responded to a call requesting a welfare check on the herd of horses residing on a property in that county. The investigators discovered the 41 horses were allegedly without access to adequate food. The investigators notified the horses’ owner, Frederick Atkinson, that he must provide the animals with appropriate feed and other care.

Atkinson subsequently told investigators that he could not afford the keep the animals and relinquished the horses to Sammie’s Friends, an animal rescue in Grass Valley. That organization placed the animals with a horse rescue.

Atkinson was charged with eight counts of felony animal cruelty. His trail was slated to commence on June 14. However, court records show that, during a June 3 pre-trial hearing, Atkinson accepted a plea agreement and pleaded no contest to one count of misdemeanor failure to care for animals