HASTINGS — A Dakota County dog kennel owner accused of animal cruelty plans to challenge the constitutionality of the law used to charge her.

Sixty-one-year-old Dayna Bell faces 16 counts of animal cruelty. A criminal complaint says employees at Bell Kennels & Farm saw her drown puppies in buckets of water or by throwing them in a swimming pool with a cinder block tied to their necks.

Bell’s attorney, Bob Miller, said they will challenge the charges based on grounds that the dogs were not pets, but “commercial” animals and subject to different rules. The Miller also plans to challenge the warrant police used to search Bell Kennels in September 2011. The complaint says sheriff’s deputies found 10 small dogs in a freezer.