Charges Dog Acton Resident : Neighbors of woman who has 55 Chihuahuas say they are noisy and smelly. She appears in court next month.

Ay, Chihuahua! Fifty-five of them. Maybe more.

Emma Harter, 64, who currently shares her Acton home with 25 baby Chihuahuas and 30 adult Chihuahuas, has been charged with running an illegal kennel, causing a public nuisance and selling a sick dog. She is scheduled to appear in Antelope Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing at the end of the month.

Harter says she gives her menagerie of little yappers a good home and should have the right to keep them.

But neighbors who have filed complaints about Harter’s hounds with county animal control officials say otherwise.

“They are loud and they are noisy and they are smelly,” said Donna Watson, who lives next door. “It’s like thunder.”

Animal Control Officer Jerry White said Tuesday that Harter has run afoul of regulations before.

When she first moved to this rural area two years ago and applied for a kennel license, White said, “She was told she could only have 35 dogs.” But Harter lost her license in December for failing to comply with regulations such as keeping the animals in cages, providing them with dog runs and daily walks and, of course, limiting their number.

Watson said that she testified at an informal office hearing at that time and that Harter was given the choice of building separate kennel facilities outside her house, de-barking the dogs by severing their vocal chords or getting rid of the animals. “But she’s done nothing,” Watson said.

Authorities agree and in April filed the criminal charges against Harter. If convicted, she could face a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $500 fine for each charge.

“We’ve made suggestions, recommendations, gave her things in writing with the district attorney sitting right next to me,” White said.

Without a kennel license, Harter can legally own three dogs, four if they are spayed or neutered, White said. But a quick tour of her home makes it clear she herself is overrun by them.

A visitor is immediately bombarded with the screechy arf-arf-arf- ing of the Chihuahuas. From atop the breakfast table and the kitchen counter, behind couches and out of cardboard boxes, the dogs--about a third of the size of your average house cat--bark and snarl at the sight of a stranger.

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A distinct canine odor also greets visitors, enhanced by the closed windows. Harter avoids opening them to stem neighbors’ complaints about the noise. “They’ve been closed since ‘93,” she said.

Harter runs a business as a Chihuahua breeder, selling the dogs through the classified sections of local papers for anywhere from $150 (for the older dogs) to as much as $1,000 (for puppies).

“I try to raise them as family dogs,” said Harter, explaining why she refuses to put the dogs in cages as required by county laws and instead lets them roam free and sleep with her and her husband, Horst, in their bed at night.

She has given names to all of the adults, and is in the process of naming the puppies: Pee Wee, Tracy, Beethoven, Rosebud. . . . Harter even cooks up a special meal for the Chihuahuas of kibble, rice and--the secret ingredient--Mocha Mix. “That’s for the protein and calcium,” Harter said.

“I truly believe she loves her dogs,” Watson said. “But she’s pushed it to a point.”

To exactly what point even White isn’t sure. He said he believes that Harter has stashed at least 15 more Chihuahuas at a friend’s place in Los Angeles, bringing the total number she owns to about 70.