Garnett ? A dog breeder accused of killing four of his dogs and injuring three others before a sheriff’s deputy could stop him, was charged with cruelty to animals and obstruction of justice after Tuesday’s incident.

The breeder, Danny Berry, 44, was released Wednesday on $2,000 bond.

The Anderson County Sheriff’s Department said Berry killed one dog with a metal pipe and bashed six others against a fence after officials arrived at his property to take the dogs away.

Berry was suspected of illegally breeding dachshunds under poor conditions. A deputy and officers with the Kansas Animal Health Department served a search warrant and order of seizure Tuesday afternoon.

Debra Duncan, director of the state’s Animal Facilities Inspection Program, said when officers arrived, Berry grabbed a metal pipe and ran for the kennel, where he killed the first dog. After being ordered to drop the pipe, Berry grabbed several dogs by their hind legs and swung them in the air, hitting their heads on fencing and dog houses before being restrained, Duncan said.

She said the dogs were thin with distended stomachs. Few had food and most did not have water, she said, and the inside of the dogs’ house looked like it had not been cleaned in weeks.