Kennewick The lawyer for a 66-year-old woman accused of breeding about 370 American Eskimo dogs on her Kennewick property, only to neglect them, said Thursday he needs more time to review a thick stack of documents in the case.

Peyman Younesi pushed the trial date for client Ella L. Stewart back to Oct. 12.

Younesi told the court he has received hundreds of pages of initial and supplemental discovery and just couldn't be ready for the original Sept. 14 trial.

Stewart, who appeared in court with her own thick file, agreed to the delay.

Stewart is charged in Benton County Superior Court with one felony count of first-degree animal cruelty and nine counts of second-degree animal cruelty.

The nine counts are all gross misdemeanors.

She has denied the charges, and her attorney has earlier said that he'll prove Stewart was not running a puppy mill, as was alleged by The Humane Society of the United States.

Deputy Prosecutor Terry Bloor said Thursday he has no objection to moving the trial, but wanted to make sure it's a realistic date for the defense.

"Let's do everything we can to get it out on the 12th," said Judge Craig Matheson.

Stewart had owned Sun Valley Kennel since the 1960s, breeding American Eskimo dogs.

She was arrested May 12 after a sheriff's deputy found the small, white dogs living in filthy cages, shopping carts, wooden boxes and other make-shift kennels while responding to an unrelated call at a neighbor's house.

Deputies returned two weeks later and seized the dogs.

About 370 dogs were taken based on their "lack of proper nutrition, dehydration, poor hygiene, unattended medical needs, lack of ventilation and heat exposure," court documents said.

Stewart relinquished control of the dogs, which ranged in age from two days old to their late teens.

The felony charge is for five dogs that had to be euthanized after being rescued. Their health problems ranged from an infected uterus and kidney and urinary infections to a ruptured eye and brain injury, according to prosecutors.