Forty-two West Highland White Terriers are recovering at the Everett Animal Shelter after Marysville police seized them from a utility trailer Aug. 31. A Marysville officer has submitted 44 criminal charges in the case.

Community Service Officer Joie Mette of the Marysville Police Department filed 43 counts of second-degree animal cruelty and one dog-breeding charge with the Marysville Prosecutor's Office, according to a Marysville Police Department update published Friday, Sept. 18. Second-degree animal cruelty is a gross misdemeanor under Washington law.

Prosecutors have not announced whether they will pursue the charges.

Police have not publicly identified a suspect.

The dogs ranged in age from about four weeks to four years. None had been spayed or neutered. Officers found them inside a trailer outfitted with makeshift partitions, stacked kennels and a plastic storage tub containing young puppies, the Lynnwood Times reported Thursday, Sept. 17. Many were matted, soaked in urine and covered in feces.

Mette told KOMO News in a Friday, Sept. 18 report that every dog has a medical issue, "but all of that can be taken care of with time."

At the shelter, staff vaccinated, microchipped and weighed each dog before placing them in clean enclosures.

One young adult female was hospitalized after a parvovirus scare but has since recovered and returned to the shelter. No other dogs showed signs of illness, according to the Marysville Police update.

The scare prompted a quarantine of all 42 Westies. That quarantine was expected to lift Monday, Sept. 21, though no official confirmation was available as of publication. Even after the quarantine ends, shelter staff will need to resume removing severe matting and trimming overgrown nails on each dog individually.

The shelter has received more than 250 adoption applications for the Westies and is no longer accepting new ones. The dogs are not available for adoption while the criminal case remains active. The end of the medical quarantine does not mean the dogs will be released.

"Staff are working very, very hard, they are very tired, but we are getting through it," Leslie Wall, assistant animal services manager at the Everett Animal Shelter, told FOX 13 Seattle on Sept. 10. The shelter had 128 animals on site and another 103 in foster care at that time.

Wall said in a Friday, Sept. 18 KOMO report that residents who want to help can donate through the shelter's website, foster other animals or volunteer their time.

The shelter's Amazon Wish List is available at everettwa.gov, and adoptable animals are listed at everettwa.gov/161/Adopt-a-Pet.

The charges were filed under a statute amended by House Bill 1149, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in May 2025. The law expanded second-degree animal cruelty to cover not only an animal's owner but also anyone who possesses, controls or has accepted responsibility for an animal.

Prosecutors have not set a timeline for deciding whether to file the charges in court.