MOUNT VERNON — A Big Lake couple entered not guilty pleas to 10 criminal counts against them in connection with a kennel operation that prosecutors said was a “puppy mill” housing 443 dogs.

Richard and Marjorie Sundberg are charged with four felonies and six misdemeanors including animal cruelty and transporting or confining an animal in an unsafe manner.

Their dogs, some pregnant and some with puppies, are housed with foster homes or rescue shelters waiting for the court to decide their future home.

It’s up to Skagit County Superior Court Judge Susan Cook to choose between putting the dogs up for adoption or giving them back to the Sundbergs.

Prosecutors say the Sundbergs’ operation was obviously a “puppy mill,” and that the couple should not get the dogs back.

The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office raided the property in January, yanking the small dogs from filthy and crowded kennels packed in a barn on Mountain View Road. Seven dogs were found dead, and others were in poor health, crusted with urine and feces. At least nine dogs have died since.

“The conditions the animals endured were truly shocking to the conscience and should not be allowed to continue in this or any other community,” Skagit County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Sloan Johnson wrote in Superior Court documents.

“The Sundbergs have made no showing that the seized animals would not suffer further abuse in the future. ... The animals were tragically neglected and forced to endure a brutal and painful existence caged in a barn to be bred and ultimately discarded. There has been nothing offered to suggest that the callousness demonstrated by the Sundbergs in allowing these conditions to manifest would not lead to the same tragic circumstances in the future,” the documents state.

The Sundbergs each face four felony charges for first-degree animal cruelty. They also face six misdemeanor charges, including four second-degree animal cruelty charges, one for transporting or confining an animal in an unsafe manner and one for violating the county’s unified development code, according to court documents.

They pleaded not guilty to each count Thursday.

During the short hearing, Skagit County Prosecutor Rich Weyrich asked the court for permission to give emergency dental care to about 75 dogs with dental disease. The dogs would need anesthesia for the treatment, so prosecutors wanted the dogs to be spayed and neutered at the same time.

The Sundbergs’ attorney, Carl Gaul of Everett, refused to allow the operations, but agreed to discuss the topic at a hearing about the dogs’ custody March 5.

Weyrich said veterinarian Peter Brown said the dental care would need to be done within two weeks. Brown has said that dental diseases can be deadly if not treated.

As the court proceedings go on, the county is racking up about $400 a day in bills for the dogs’ care.

In court documents, Johnson has said rescue organizations are nearly “overwhelmed, both emotionally and financially, by caring for the Sundbergs’ dogs.”

Many of the dogs are in foster care, their keepers waiting to hear the animals’ fate.

The Humane Society of Skagit Valley in Burlington is housing about 20 of the dogs. One spotty gray Chihuahua will give birth within a week or two. Some other dogs have already had puppies.

The society’s director, Sandy Nelson, said the dogs there are warming up to toys and people.

“There has been a huge change,” Nelson said.

The pregnant Chihuahua didn’t understand the green bone in her kennel.

“They looked at toys like ‘what the heck are these?’” she said.

Then, one day the Chihuahua picked the toy up in her mouth and started to play, Nelson said.

Other dogs were skittish when volunteers tried to pick them up, and now they want to be held, she said.

Volunteers have flooded in to help with the dogs. But, Nelson said there is always a need for people to hold the dogs and clean up after them.

Nelson, who was at the hearing Thursday morning, said she expected the Sundbergs to plead not guilty.

“We expected it,” Nelson said, “but that doesn’t make it any easier.”

Tahlia Ganser can be reached at 360-416-2148 or at .