MERRILL, Wis. (AP) -- A Lincoln County man accused of abandoning his two hunting dogs has been charged with animal neglect after the canines were found starving and dehydrated in his vacant home.

Thirty-five-year-old Matthew Ryk was charged Friday with two counts of failing to provide food and water to an animal.

The dogs were taken to the Lincoln County Humane Society, where the shelter's director says they seem to be responding to treatment.

A neighbor discovered the dogs in the basement of the home Ryk vacated three weeks earlier. The neighbor assumed Ryk had taken his dogs with him.

The dogs are viszlas, which are medium-size, short-haired pointers originally bred as hunting dogs in Hungary.

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