UPDATE 5/7/03 on the Montana Collies

Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt

*Permission to crosspost*

BLANKETS.  The dogs at Camp Collie - Great Falls (CCGF) need your help.  More used, washable blankets are requested to be used as bedding in each pen.  Won’t you please search your closets for old blankets?  Wash and dry them thoroughly, and ship them to:  AWCA BLANKETS, c/o CCGF,  4000 River Drive North, Great Falls, MT 59404.  Thank you, very much.

Folks, I spoke with Linda Hughes, Dir. HSCC, and now supervisor of CCGF, yesterday.  She said, “Everything is going really well.  There is a wonderful spirit of cooperation, and we are all very optimistic.”  The animals are settling into their new home, and Linda praised the wonderful job volunteer co-ordinators Cindy James and Monika Crummett are doing.

A law enforcement living evidence transfer of nearly 200 dogs and cats driven 85 miles from Shelby to Great Falls is not an easy undertaking.  According to Dave Pauli, Regional Director, HSUS, “This event involved weeks of technical, legal, and logistical planning; background searches of all convoy drivers, and inspections of all vehicles.”

Originally the defendants hauled these animals 2,240 miles stuffed into one 8 ft x 45 ft semi trailer from Alaska to Montana.  On this latest trip they were transported in 31 vehicles including a dozen enormous livestock trailers, many Humane Society animal rescue vehicles, several vans, and SUV’s.  The vehicles and gas were donated.  An HSUS Field Response Rescue Trailer brought up the rear of the convoy, carrying only eight dogs.  It served as the Mobile Emergency Veterinary Clinic, complete with stainless steel operating table and complete veterinary supplies.  Dr. Kelly Manzer, DVM, was in attendance.  A Civil Air Patrol plane circled overhead the entire route, taking digital photographs.

Law enforcement vehicles from Toole County, Cut Bank, Cascade County, Great Falls, and the Montana Highway Patrol had every intersection blocked by a patrol car to insure the nearly 2 mile long convoy of precious cargo could move along Interstate 15 without having to stop.

Toole County Under Sheriff, Don Hale, led the convoy in a patrol car.  Toole County Sheriff, Donna Matoon, responsible for the care and custody of the animals from the first day of the rescue, drove the last vehicle, while Toole County Deputies, Mike Lamey and Pat Kellegher, provided security up and down both sides of the convoy the entire route.

Seasoned volunteers familiar to the animals loaded them in Shelby, and rode in the vehicles with them.  Some of the special-needs dogs were crated in the 4-H building, and carried to their transport vehicles in order to minimize stress.  Familiar, devoted volunteers rode scrunched beside their crates the entire way to provide emotional support.

As the dogs left the 4-H building for the last time, each one had to pass the defendants - who were restrained behind a police line - for visual confirmation.  They were then taken to one of four evidentiary transfer and loading stations managed by HSUS personnel:  Dave Pauli, Suzi Hansen, Mark Johnson, DVM, and Karen McGowan.

When all animals were loaded, and on their way to Great Falls, an HSUS team, led by volunteer Dr. Mark Johnson, DVM, ran the fairground decontamination team, according to Dave Pauli, to insure the buildings were cleaned and sanitized to make certain farm animals coming in next month would be safe from parasites, and health concerns.

Upon arrival at Camp Collie - Great Falls, the convoy was met by Linda Hughes, and another huge team of volunteers.  Thea Sperline explained, “In an hour and a half each animal was checked off, weighed in, photographed, then put into their new home.”  The entire transfer from start to finish took just 7 hours.

Home is a massive 20,000 ft building with a cement floor.  (The cats are in their own personal, quiet, carpeted room.)  All dogs are housed in one gigantic open space.  Along the length of both sides, and down the middle of the room are double rows of Ultra-Quality Prefiert 5 ft x 10 ft dog pens tall enough for a person to stand in.  There are no protruding bolts, sharp edges, or other injury points.  The pens were donated by HSUS, AWCA, TCSO, Montana Animal Care Assoc., and some by the vender, who gave us wholesale prices, and free delivery.  Red Horse Squadron from Malmstrom Air Force Base assembled the pens, and prepared the building and grounds.

PetSmart Charities donated 100 new animal carriers for the transport of the animals, and Thea Sperline’s Collie Trolley gang lent 25 crates.  The AWCA crates, originally donated to us by PETCO were used, and several others were lent by volunteers.  Linda Hughes told me she made dog beds out of the two-part crates.  Each half was placed into a pen, and your blankets and towels are the bedding!

Bob James, early Sunday morning, gathered all of the stainless steel (you helped AWCA purchase ) as soon as the animals no longer needed it - and drove it to Great Falls so every pen would have a filled water pail and a ready food dish when the animals arrived.

THE COURAGE OF TOOLE COUNTY

On Monday I asked Toole County Under Sheriff Don Hale to describe the impact this tremendous rescue effort has had on Toole County.  He told me:  “Toole is a small county.  TCSO is a small department.  Shelby is a small town.  We absolutely could not have done it without help.  It would have bankrupted the county.”

As it is, the taxpayers did not have to pay anything to support the animals while they were in Shelby, nor will they while the animals are in Great Falls.  Your donations and volunteers are supporting the animals.  The local, core volunteers have worked to the point of exhaustion in Shelby, and still they commit to further help in Great Falls.

Don Hale continued:  “I believe in this case.  There is no doubt in my mind we are doing the right thing in pursuing these criminal charges.”  He described the first time he saw the animals.  “I will never forget what I saw when I opened the doors of that trailer...the smells I smelled...the sounds I heard.  Those animals were suffering horribly.”  He continued, “It isn’t always easy to do the right thing.  Easy would have been to wave them down the road.”

Toole County DID finally wave them down the road - in style - but only after 6 months and 3 days of constant devotion and loving care trying to restore their health and dignity...and only then because there was no longer a suitable building available in which to house them.

AWCA is working with Shelby Mayor Larry Banderud to prepare an official, permanent THANK YOU from the animal-loving community to the People of Toole County and Surrounding Communities.

Meanwhile...

On behalf of the American Working Collie Association; the Collie Health Foundation; the Collie Club Of America; the entire animal-loving community...

I deeply, deeply, thank the County of Toole, the Town of Shelby, and Surrounding Communities for having the courage to devotedly and lovingly care for the:  165 Collies; 3 Stabyhunds; 2  Shetland Sheepdogs; 1 Fox Terrier, and 10 cats rescued at the Port of Sweet Grass, on October 31, 2002 - for six months and three days - until May 4, 2003.

Calmly,

Jean Levitt, President AWCA

Lisa King, AWCA Director AWCA Rescue

Officers and Members of AWCA

If you would like to assist AWCA with this rescue effort, you may send a check to:

                                                Bethany Burke

                                                AWCA Treasurer

                                                2807 Lee Trevino Court

                                                Shalimar, FL 32579

Make the check out to AWCA and in the memo area note:  collie rescue-medical, collie rescue-stainless steel, or collie rescue-general.