Volunteers

The minimum age for volunteers at Camp collie – Great Falls has been changed to 16 years of age.

Second Trial

Tuesday, May 27, Anaconda, MT.

Jean Be Back – Part VI

By Jean Levitt

Following the mistrial in January, there was much deliberation concerning a retrial. In huddles in the courthouse lobby, deliberations began. Phone calls, faxes, emails clogged communications in and around Shelby. Communication avenues of prosecutors Merle Raph and Joe Coble were so clogged with demands for a new trial they couldn’t communicate with each other or the Toole County Sheriff’s Office. Progress toward a new trial was actually inhibited by the shocked, angry animal lovers demanding justice for the Montana collies and their fellow dogs and cats.

I tried without success to change my plane reservations again to go home early. I had already changed them once, when the trial extended into the second week. As long as I was going to be in Shelby, I determined to make myself useful. Don Hale, Toole County Undersheriff, escorted Kay Bullard, professional groomer, and me to the local radio station, where I did a broadcast on who exactly was paying for the care of the animals. Many Toole County residents worried their tax dollars would be used up supporting the animals. I explained animal lovers everywhere supported the two funds: the AWCA Collie Rescue Fund, and the Toole County Community Collie Rescue Fund, which pay all of the animals’ bills.

Kay and I held a reception in my hotel room for the high school students and their teachers who had answered the radioed plea on Nov. 1 to help unload “some animals.” We thanked them for their role in this rescue and presented each of them with the book, The Christmas Collie, by Ted Paul.

The unloading of that truck had been a shock for the students. They had not been permitted on it. They received the animals from firefighters, the police, and Search and Rescue personnel dressed in hazardous waste suits, who actually unloaded it. The students’ job was to comfort and water the dogs as they waited in line for triage with one of the veterinarians. The students described their experience with phrases such as: soaked with urine; covered in manure; flat eyeballs; too weak to stand; blank stares; weak whimpering; shivering; smelled awful. They had never seen anything like it before.

I explained what they saw was abnormal...dogs and cats are not transported in that manner. What they saw was unacceptable and that was why the animals are in the care and custody of the Toole County Sheriff’s Office, and why animal lovers everywhere are outraged and helping Montana care for them while they wait for justice to be done.

On Saturday evening Kay and I hosted a pizza party for Camp Collie volunteers in the lobby of our hotel, the Shelby Comfort Inn. On Sunday we drove to Great Falls, leaving behind the collies and other animals, and new, good friends. This tragic rescue involving so many helpless animals has bonded together total strangers who will now be friends forever. As I flew over Montana returning home to Sir Austin in Vermont, I looked down at the earth where the Montana collies were waiting for a new trial. I sent them a silent message: “Jean be back...”

To be continued...

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.