NEWPORT – After working with a Newport dog breeder for more than six months, the state’s Animal Welfare Agency on Tuesday removed 50 dogs from the business.

This was not an enforcement action, Animal Welfare Director Norma Worley said Thursday, but rather an agreement by the owner to surrender the animals.

The owner, Carol Thibeault of Old Bangor Road, raises standard poodles, Siberian huskies and miniature pinschers, said Worley, but was unable to care for them all.

“She just had too many for her to handle by herself. The dogs were getting the basics, food and water, but this was a veterinary care issue,” Worley said. She said the dogs had mange – a mite that lives in or under the skin – and internal parasites.

The cure for mange, Worley said, is medicinal baths, accomplished by dipping the dogs in a treatment solution.

“She is physically unable to do this,” Worley said, adding that Thibeault was in her early 70s.

Efforts to reach Thibeault on Thursday for comment were unsuccessful.

“We have been working with the owner for six months,” Worley said. The Animal Welfare Agency’s policy is education before enforcement, she said.

“Rather than proceed with a criminal action, the owner agreed that if we could find the dogs good homes, she would give them up,” Worley said. “This was a win-win situation.”

Thibeault, who has a valid kennel license with the town of Newport, still has 25 dogs.

“We are much more comfortable with that number,” Worley said. The agency will continue to monitor Thibeault’s kennel, she added.

Worley said staff from the Bangor Humane Society assisted state agents in loading and moving the dogs, which were taken to Harvest Hills Animal Shelter in Fryeburg. The animal welfare director said they were taken so far away because all of the central Maine shelters are full.

Harvest Hill manager Joan McBurnie said 42 of the dogs are available for adoption. They include 19 standard poodles, 11 Siberian huskies and 12 miniature pinschers. The remaining dogs are still undergoing intensive medical treatment.

All the dogs will be spayed and neutered before leaving the clinic, which can be reached at 935-4358 or at www.harvesthills.org.