A judge has dismissed 25 counts of animal cruelty against a woman who was accused of operating a "puppy mill" out of her Hawai'i Kai condo.

Circuit Judge Reynaldo Graulty dismissed the charges against Lucy Kagan because of the lengthy delay between the time of the alleged offenses and the filing of the complaint.

Kagan has denied mistreating 25 dogs that the Hawaiian Humane Society claims were found crammed in cages in May 2003.

Attempts to find a telephone number for Kagan were unsuccessful yesterday. Kagan, a former dog breeder and kennel operator, was served in 2005 with a penal summons accusing her of 25 counts of animal cruelty.

"We're extremely disappointed," said Pamela Burns, president and CEO of the Hawaiian Humane Society. "The condition the puppies were in when they were found was horrendous. It was not something that happened over a short period of time. We spent thousands of dollars and significant man-hours on this. This sends the wrong message."

The charges against Kagan stemmed from a May 7, 2003, incident in which firefighters who put out a kitchen fire at Kagan's rented Hawai'i Kai condominium reported finding nearly 30 dogs living in squalid conditions inside the condo.

Kagan denied she was mistreating the animals, but the Hawaiian Humane Society seized almost half of the dogs and required that the others be returned to their legal owners.

The seized dogs eventually were returned to Kagan based on her assurances that they would be properly cared for. An 18-month court battle between Kagan and the Humane Society followed because of Kagan's inability or unwillingness to account for all of the dogs.

In a separate case, another judge placed Kagan on five years probation in a tax evasion case that arose after she failed to report income from the sales of the dogs in 2001 and 2002.