Charges filed in Wash. puppy mill case

SKAGIT COUNTY, Wash. -- The woman and her husband accused of running a massive puppy mill operation has been charged.

Marjorie Sundberg and her husband, Richard Sundberg, were charged with four counts of animal cruelty on Thursday, and Skagit County Prosecutor Richard Weyrich said additional charges may follow. The couple, however, maintains their innocence.

Nearly 450 dogs were rescued in the past nine days from their unlicensed Mount Vernon kennel.

Workers with the Northwest Organization for Animal Help who are caring for dozens of the rescued were relieved to hear prosecutors have filed charges against the dogs' owners.

The charges allege the dogs were found living in inhumane conditions. Detectives said the dogs were kept in tight cages contaminated with feces and urine that sat alongside bodies of dead dogs in unheated spaces.

"There were way too many dogs in that situation some of those dogs are in really really bad shape," Weyrich said.

Many dogs had been left without any food or water. Veterinarians later determined some of dogs were suffering from coccidia, an intestinal disease, and many others were pregnant.

The prosecutor isn't relying on charges alone; he hopes to put the Sundbergs' Mountain View Kennel out of business.

The county commissioner passed a special resolution on Tuesday, giving the prosecutor authority to sue the dog breeding operation for creating a public nuisance. If a judge agrees to the allegations, the Sundbergs would never be able to own a breeding business in Skagit County again.

Investigators first learned of the Sundbergs' operations after serving search warrants at the homes of their daughters, Renee Roske and Mary Anne Holleman in Snohomish County.

At one of the homes, deputies found "several hidden compartments built into the house to hide dogs," court documents state. Thirty nine dogs were found in the two homes; however, none of those dogs were seized.

At Holleman's kennel in Gold Bar, deputies found 155 dogs, 87 of them of them stashed in an attic, living in ghastly conditions so horrific that it shocked even veteran animal control officers, officials said.

Officers said the odor from the feces and urine was so overpowering it could be detected well outside the residence. A large commercial dumpster stood in the yard overflowing with dog waste.

Medications and used syringes, used to treat sick animals, were found scattered in front of pens and in a refrigerator.

Investigators seized all the dogs from the property, as well as four dogs and three parrots.

No charges have been filed in Snohomish County.