LIHU'E, Kaua'i — A Kapa'a man will serve six months in jail after pleading no contest to charges he left his 20 dogs unwatered and unfed so long that three died and 17 were found severely malnourished.

He was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail on each of 20 counts of animal cruelty, but the terms will be served concurrently.

Steve Cummings, 48, was ordered to surrender custody of the dogs and also required to make restitution of $12,150 to the Kaua'i Humane Society for the dogs' care after their rescue Dec. 6, 2006.

The animals were found in an enclosure in Anahola, some caged and some chained.

"It was a horrific scene, and one of the most blatant cases of starvation I have ever witnessed," said veterinarian Becky Rhoades, director of the Kaua'i Humane Society.

After their rehabilitation, the dogs were kept at the property of a friend of Cummings, but they have since been returned to the humane society, which plans to put them up for adoption.

"After they have a chance to settle back in, we will make them available for adoption. We are relieved to have them back and give them a chance for a new loving home," Rhoades said.

Cummings' attorney, Brandon Flores, said that his client had arranged with a friend to care for the dogs, and did not know that they were not getting food and water. Flores said the dogs were left about two weeks without sustenance.

Rhoades said the humane society would have stepped in and cared for the animals if it had known.

"All Cummings had to do was call us and we would have helped him. But instead he left his dogs confined by chain and cage to die of starvation," she said.

At the time of the incident, the case was a misdemeanor, but under a new law enacted June 1, it would be classified a class C felony.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.