Yellow Pages
MOUNT VERNON — A Skagit County District Court judge issued a bench warrant Tuesday for the arrest of Marjorie Sundberg, who is charged with four counts of second-degree animal cruelty for the alleged mistreatment of four of the 443 dogs seized from her property last month.
Sundberg did not show up for her arraignment Tuesday morning on the charges, and prosecutors said they received no notice that she would not be there.
Her husband, Richard Sundberg, who faces the same charges, was also not in court. But he had waived his appearance through his attorney.
Skagit County officials seized 443 dogs from a barn on the couples property on Mountain View Road in Big Lake, near Mount Vernon.
Skagit County Prosecutor Rich Weyrich said Marjorie Sundberg could come to district court and pay approximately $25 to quash the warrant and set a new court date. If she does not, she will be arrested.
Under state law, animal cruelty in the second degree is a misdemeanor unless abandonment is involved.
The first of the four charges against the Sundbergs was for a 4-year-old female Yorkshire terrier found with a 10-centimeter-by-3-centimeter wound, documented by county Animal Control Officer Emily Diaz in an affidavit. The roughly month-old wound wept a foul-smelling yellow mucus that, according to Diaz and information provided to her by a veterinarian, had been covered by a shirt for at least two weeks.
The second charge was for an 8- to 10-week-old Chihuahua found lying on her side in a small plastic container, according to Diaz’s affidavit.
“Richard Sundberg stated that they had not brought the dog to the veterinarian,” the affidavit said. “However, they had been providing the dog with sugar water every two hours.”
The 1-pound dog tested positive for coccidiosis and giardia, according to the affidavit, as did another Chihuahua weighing less than a pound that was also found in a plastic container, according to the affidavit.
That third dog, 6 to 8 weeks old, was cold, had feces on her face and body, had diarrhea, was dehydrated, and tested positive for hypoglycemia, Diaz stated.
The fourth dog was found to be wasting away from malnutrition and lack of movement, according to Diaz. The dog was hypoglycemic and had severe outer ear canal infections, a ruptured left eye and a dental disease that caused green discharge to seep from several teeth, the affidavit stated.
