Pend Oreille County authorities will retain control of 205 allegedly abused dogs seized last month from a Newport-area kennel.

Under an agreement prosecutors and defense attorneys worked out Friday, the dogs may be placed in “foster care.” They may not be given to new owners unless the current owners, Jeanette and Swen Bergman, are found guilty of misdemeanor animal cruelty charges at their May 12 trial.

Prosecutors agreed with defense attorneys that state law doesn’t allow ownership to be transferred except in a forfeiture hearing after an animal-cruelty conviction.

In a 15-minute District Court hearing Friday, prosecutors also amended the charges against the Bergmans to add details and a 27th count. The new second-degree animal-cruelty charge covers all the dogs not cited in the other 26 counts of second-degree animal cruelty and illegally removing more than half of a dog’s ear.

The Bergmans pleaded innocent to all the charges.

Meanwhile, prosecutors apparently resolved a dispute with a Monroe, Wash., kennel that is keeping 105 of the Bergmans’ dogs. Owners of Myonly Boarding Kennel, Joel Chriscaden and Cathi Tower-Chriscaden, refused to release the dogs last Friday when county representatives came to remove some of them.

County officials said they were attempting to move the dogs at the request of the Myonly kennel owners. But the kennel’s attorney, Brian Duce, said the couple feared a renegade group of animal activists was trying to hide the dogs so they couldn’t be returned to the Bergmans.

Myonly Boarding Kennel demanded a written agreement to protect them from legal action by the Bergmans before releasing the dogs. The kennel also slapped a lien on the dogs for unpaid kennel fees.

County officials worked out a “hold-harmless” agreement with Duce on Thursday, and the Chriscadens agreed not to press their financial claim.

The county’s designated agent, Issaquah, Wash., veterinarian Jayne Jensen, said she was puzzled because the dogs were being removed at the Chriscadens’ request when the dispute arose. But Jensen said some public accusations that the kennel was mistreating the dogs and denying them proper medical care are false.

“The dogs received wonderful care there,” she said.

Officials now plan to move the dogs early next week and to start placing them in foster homes by next weekend.

, DataTimes MEMO: Fostering program Inquiries about the fostering program should be faxed to the Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s Department at (509) 447-2222.