Members of the community are offering their help to an elderly Gwinnett County man who could face charges of animal cruelty for having a herd of extremely thin cows.

John Lamb, 84, has lived on his 87 acres near Mountain View High School in Buford for nearly 60 years.  He’s been raising cattle long before the school or nearby subdivisions popped up.

He even graduated the University of Georgia with a degree in animal husbandry.

But the man, who has lived by himself on the farm all these years, is now threatened with losing his 40 head of cattle and possibly facing criminal charges after neighbors complained the cows looked malnourished.

“The people that ride up and down that road out there, they see that cow and they say ‘oh, Lamb’s not feeding those cows—he’s starving them to death’,” he tells WSB’s Sandra Parrish.

Gwinnett Animal Control has visited the property several times recently and on one visit found ten dead animals.  A necropsy of one determined it died of malnutrition.

Lamb admits his cows are thin, but blames a bad crop of hay last season that has also affected other farmers.  He says he has bought bagged feed and even had the cattle checked out by vets from UGA.

But already, Lamb is getting offers of help to care for his herd.

Brian Owens, who met the elderly man a little over two weeks ago, has not only offered to reroof Lamb’s home, also plans to purchase and supply eight bales of hay for the cattle.

“I’ll be bringing over two at a time and they say it will last about ten days a piece; and the grass is coming up so they’ll be fattening up fast,” he says.

Amanda Parker also dropped by with a friend with an offer to help.  She grew up on a farm and is willing to lend whatever support she can.

“Instead of people calling animal control and trying to come and take all of his stuff away from him, they should be out here trying to help him and I just think it’s wrong that that’s what it’s come to,” she says.

For now, animal control has held off on seizing the cows or charging Lamb.  A spokesman says the agency is hopeful someone will offer to buy the cows or lend the help necessary to care for them.

In the meantime, a fund has been established by Owens and his girlfriend to help assist Lamb. Donations can be made to www.gofundme.com/8daiq8.