HONOLULU -- A woman who admitted leaving seven dogs alone without adequate food or water was sentenced to a fine and community service Wednesday.

In December 2008, the Humane Society removed seven miniature pincers from an Aiea apartment rented by Lira Ikeda. The property manager said no one had tended the dogs for about a month.

In district court Wednesday, Ikeda pleaded no contest to seven counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty. Her attorney said she hadn't meant to neglect the dogs, but her ex-boyfriend who owned five of the dogs was in prison and her mother was dying of cancer.

“It’s not as black and white as the state has tried to make it seem,” said public defender Hayley Cheng.

Deputy Prosecutor Tara Molnar asked Judge Alvin Nishimura to make Ikeda pay more than $2,000 in fines and perform 700 hours of community service, but instead, he set the fine and fees at $155 per dog, for a total of $1,085, and 350 hours of community service.

The dogs have all been adopted by other families. Thelma and Louise were brought to Naomi Loewe days after they were rescued, and their smaller sister, Skoshi, four months later. She said the first two dogs were in poor shape when she first saw them, but she didn’t hesitate when asked to care for them.

“Once you saw them and saw what bad shape they were in, it was very easy to take them and try nurse them back to health,” Loewe said.

Loewe said she didn’t think the judge’s sentence was harsh enough to discourage others from neglecting animals. “I hope in the future the court system will see fit to hand out stricter sentences so that these kinds of cases won't happen,” Loewe said.

The judge also granted Ikeda a deferral of her sentence. That means if she pays her fines and stays out of trouble for one year, the conviction will not appear on her criminal record.