MONTANA
COLLIE UPDATE
Friday,
November 15, 2002
Hope emerges at 'Camp Collie'
Kindness begins to heal truckload of ill animals after journey of
despair
By CAROL BRADLEY
Tribune Staff Writer
SHELBY -- Retired
schoolteacher Barbara Mercer unhooks a metal clasp, swings open the top half of
a wooden door and steps back as a handful of collies bounce up and down with
excitement at the sound of her cheerful voice.
Stall after stall, barn after barn, the reaction is the same.
"They all jump," Mercer says. "They all come at
once."
The chorus of barks is a welcome noise at
Two weeks ago, authorities unloaded 170 malnourished dogs, mostly
collies, and 11 cats after discovering the animals crammed into a squalid
tractor-trailer headed from
The cats and 14 of the dogs, mostly puppies, have since been
relocated to an indoor facility. The remaining 156 dogs are biding their time in
the stables on this dusty, wind-whipped tract a mile or so east of town.
They'll be here indefinitely, until the courts decide their fate.
*********************************************************
It was about
Johnathan Harman was behind the wheel. He told the inspector that
he and his wife were in the process of moving from
That much was obvious, the inspector, who wasn't identified, told
Brimhall later. From the back of the truck he could hear a cacophony of barks.
The inspector asked the Harmans to pull over. He walked to the rear
of the trailer and opened the doors. A "number" of dogs dived out.
As the Harmans scrambled to retrieve them, the inspector opened the
doors farther. From one end of the 40-by-8-foot trailer to the other he spied
crates of dogs: rows of wooden chambers and, on top of that, plastic airline
crates stacked three deep.
"He immediately saw that the animals were in poor
condition," Brimhall said.
Crates fall
Several of the crates had tipped over during the trip. Their doors
had sprung open and the dogs inside had crawled out.
The Sweet Grass border is one of the busiest in the country when it
comes to cattle and pig shipments. Inspectors aren't used to seeing domestic
animals packed together in such quantities, Brimhall said.
"I've been here for a little over 20 years now," he said.
"This is the first time I've seen this number."
Finding no federal cruelty-to-animal law that might apply in this
case, customs officials contacted the
Early-hour inspection
The dogs "didn't have any bedding. They were filthy, lying in
urine. Thin," he recalled Thursday. "It was pretty overwhelming."
There was so much urine, in fact, that some of it had dripped out
of the truck and frozen to its sides.
The Harmans were arrested and charged with five counts each of
misdemeanor cruelty to animals. The charges have since been upgraded to 182
counts each.
Toole County doesn't have a Humane Society, so deputies contacted
Linda Hughes, director of the Humane Society of
Hughes contacted
Unloading the dogs
By now it was close to
Sheriff's deputies, emergency rescue workers and local firefighters
had mobilized a small army to haul in water and hay and prepare more than 40
stalls in three horse barns for the collies. Hughes, Manzer and Clark devised a
list of things to check the dogs for, including dehydration and the condition of
their teeth.
By
The Harmans are believed to have left their home in
Thirty-eight hundred miles with no food, no water. Except for a
tiny window near the cab of the truck, the dogs endured the trip with no
ventilation.
The smell of ammonia inside the trailer was so pungent, Hughes
said, that firefighters fought the urge to gag as they carried the dogs out into
fresh air.
Even with that much manpower, it took three hours to empty the
truck.
The collies' reaction?
"They were silent," Hughes recalled.
Dying of thirst
The dogs were petrified from the journey, animal control officer
Kathy Kennedy recalled later.
They were also severely dehydrated.
Their eyes were sunken -- "almost flat," Hughes said --
and when officials lifted the skin on the dogs' backs, it stayed
"tented," incapable of snapping back the way it would have done had
the dogs been given adequate water.
Several dogs suffered abscesses in their teeth. A number had cuts
and scratches on their faces.
One older collie was bleeding in a number of places where his fur
was matted heavily, tugging on his skin.
All of them were thin.
Some were too weak to walk.
The trip was too much for one dog. He was found dead.
"You could see bones, spines and ribs," Deputy Sheriff
Loren Running said. "The dogs were distraught when they got off."
The dogs were so malnourished it didn't occur to Humane Society
officials that any might be pregnant. One dog surprised them that night by
giving birth to nine puppies. Seven lived.
Feces and urine covered dreadlocks hang from an adult male
collie Thursday in
Curing the sick
More than anything,
Social animals that they are, the collies' first instinct was to
regroup. That first night in the barns, dogs burrowed under walls to join
companions one stall over. The next day, officials installed hogwire underground
to prevent that from happening again.
They've separated the collies by gender and age. Through trial and
error they've learned that a few of the dogs are troublemakers and need to be
housed by themselves.
For two days the collies ate little, but slurped down as much water
as volunteers could provide -- five 1,800-gallon truckloads a day. Now they're
down to two 1,800-gallon truckloads a day.
Help arrives
Here's the remarkable thing about
People have donated food, money and elbow grease. Wednesday, the
Great Falls Petco delivered nearly $2,000 worth of supplies and cash donated by
local residents.
For the time being, anyway, the collies don't need any more food:
Iams has donated 7,000 pounds of dry dog food, enough to last four to six weeks.
Supporters from across the country have donated $7,500. A woman in
New Jersey charged a $1,000 donation to her credit card.
The $7,500 is a pittance compared to the amount it might take to
keep Camp Collie going, but it's a start.
Had the Harmans' truck contained Rottweilers or pit bulls or some
other less lovable breed, the response might have been less enthusiastic. But
this was a truckload of Lassies, a breed immortalized by the classic TV show as
trustworthy and good. (Incidently, the Harmon's "Valient
Collies" website, which has now been taken down, boasted of their
having owned a Collie who had been bred to Lassie, and pictured the
puppies)
Here's something equally uplifting about Camp Collie: Almost as
quickly as the community responded, the dogs began responding as well.
Shedding their shyness
Dogs that couldn't walk two weeks ago are now standing on their own
and looking forward to daily exercise.
Nine 6-month-old puppies that had looked so underfed are growing
noticeably by the day.
When volunteers first entered a stall with a pitchfork or a plastic
leash, the dogs retreated to the far reaches.
"They were so ... just timid ... and they didn't jump or
anything. They were confused," said volunteer Barbara Cole, another retired
schoolteacher from Shelby.
By early this week the dogs had begun to show a more carefree side.
"Some of them want to run and jump and some want to play with
the other dogs," Cole said. "There are some still you have to catch.
They cower in the corner. But once you catch them, they're fine."
Help is still needed desperately, especially weekdays. Walking big
dogs that are unaccustomed to walks is wearing. The stench of caked-on feces and
urine permeates the stalls and clings to clothes.
Jumping for hugs
But the collies' grateful response is worth the sacrifice,
volunteers say.
There are the high-steppers -- collies who strut about as proudly
as a Tennessee walking horse. And there are the leaners, dogs who are content to
stand still, tilting with all their weight into a human's legs.
As much as they enjoy their walks, some of the collies relish
affection more. They leap up, demanding hugs, or stand motionless to have their
ears scratched or their chins stroked.
The sable collie with the heavily matted fur is doing better, too.
One morning this week he sat in the sunshine for a few minutes, then
unexpectedly turned to the woman kneeling beside him, placed his two front paws
on her shoulders and gazed at her, eye-to-eye.
"I think it's the first time they're really had any real
personal contact," Mercer said, "and they're really enjoying it."
Christine Stipich from the Lewis and Clark Humane Society
examines one of the dogs at Camp Collie, a holding area for 156 of the more than
170 dogs
that were confiscated by customs authorities, Thursday in Shelby.
To help
Donations to Camp Collie may be sent to the Toole County Community
Collie Rescue Fund, First State Bank of Shelby, 260 Main St., Shelby, MT 59474.
Volunteers are needed most at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. daily, when the
collies are fed and watered and their stalls are cleaned. Volunteers are welcome
any time during daylight hours to exercise the dogs and give them attention.
By CAROL BRADLEY
Tribune Staff Writer
Thursday, November 21,
2002
They've sent money for medicine, held bake sales to pay for hundreds of stainless steel feeding bowls and even dispatched two animal control officers to provide help.
When the time comes, a national collie rescue group is prepared to do still more: help find suitable new homes for the 171 dogs and 11 cats that were rescued at the U.S.-Canada border two and a half weeks ago.
The American Working Collie Association's Collie Rescue group will do whatever is necessary to help find good homes for the dogs, almost all of which are collies, association president Jean Levitt said by telephone Wednesday from her home in Vermont.
"The entire collie community, without exception, is horribly distressed by this," Levitt said of the collies' plight. "It's absolutely the most horrific, worst collie rescue I have ever heard of in my life."
Authorities discovered the animals crammed in an unventilated, ammonia-clogged tractor-trailer when their owners, Johnathan and Athena Ann Lethcoe-Harman, stopped at the Sweet Grass border station on Halloween night.
The couple told customs officials they were
moving the animals from
The Harmans are believed to have spent at
least a week on the road, driving an estimated 3,800 miles without feeding or
watering the dogs and cats.
Word of what was quickly dubbed "
Ordinarily, collies are sweet, loving dogs that are emotionally open to humans, Levitt said. Neglected, abused collies frequently adopt a vacant, empty stare -- a distancing that helps them survive trauma.
When she first contacted the Toole County Sheriff's Office a day or so after the rescue, Levitt said, she explained that defense mechanism to Chief Deputy Don Hale.
"He very quietly said to me, 'That's what we saw in many of the dogs when we opened the truck,' and it broke my heart," Levitt said. She wept as she recalled the conversation.
Levitt is assuming the Harmans will have to forfeit their dogs, but the fate of the animals is unclear.
The Harmans have been charged with 182 misdemeanor counts of cruelty to animals and are scheduled to appear before Toole County Justice of the Peace Janice Freeland on Dec. 2.
If convicted, they face maximum fines of $500 for each count and/or six months in jail. Under state law Freeland also has the option of refusing to give the animals back to the Harmans.
An attorney for the Harmans, Scott Albers of
For now, anyway, the collies are housed in hay-lined horse stalls at the fairgrounds. To keep them from leaping out of the stalls, both upper and lower doors are kept shut, which means the dogs spend their days in near darkness.
The cats and a couple of dogs with new puppies are being housed in an indoor shelter nearby.
The task of caring for the collies has been
overwhelming.
Toole County Deputy Sheriff Kevin Gates has been working full-time lining up help and supplies for the animals. On a scale of 1 to 10 -- 10 being perfectly healthy -- he said the dogs were at about a 1 when they arrived and are now at about a 5.
"I think they're doing remarkably better than when we first got them," Gates said.
The dogs were treated late last week for
giardia and coccidia, intestinal parasites. Workers are taking care to disinfect
their feeding bowls between meals. To make that possible the collie association
has shipped two sets of bowls for each dog to
"Some of the dogs are a little skittish and I really don't know why," Gates said. But "a lot of the dogs that were real standoffish before have come around and want to be petted."
As she said this, workers were delivering seven pallets of Science Diet dog food. Iams donated 5,600 pounds of food last week.
The dogs haven't been groomed in part because
officials wanted to use their filthy condition as evidence in court, but also
because the dogs were too shell-shocked to withstand the rigors of bathing and
brushing, Levitt said she was told. She said a team of professional groomers is
ready to swoop in to clean the dogs whenever
The evidence has been collected, Gates said Thursday. He said the collies need grooming for the sake of their own health, and he's thinking the groomers will be called in "very soon."
Meanwhile, animal control officers Dianna
Blakely and Carol Barnes flew to
Blakely and Barnes reported that while "
When they flew out of
Levitt would not elaborate on the contents of the report the two officers prepared for the organization.
The American Working Collie Association's 350
to 400 members have raised thousands of dollars for
Last time he checked, $13,000 had been
collected in
Levitt said she's been amazed by the
outpouring of concern for
"It would ring and I would pick up the phone and it would be three different callers on the line: 'How can we help?' " Levitt said.
Tom Lackey
Associated Press
"A lot of the dogs bury
their food as soon as we feed them," Barb Mercer shouts over the cacophony
of 170 dogs celebrating the arrival of breakfast in the cavernous 4-H building.
"They hadn't been fed in so long, they want to save it."
This is
With animal cruelty charges
pending against the dogs' owners, this town of 2,800 has the difficult task of
caring for the dogs, mostly collies, and 11 cats. But what could have been an
expensive, unpleasant legal obligation has turned into something else in Shelby,
a farm community on the windswept High Plains - a point of immense pride.
The townspeople, and many
others for hundreds of miles around, brought food. They brought straw for
bedding. They sent cash. And they came in droves - day after day, week after
week, for more than three months now - to walk, feed, groom and clean up after
the collies.
"It's for these guys. I
love these guys," said Kerry King of
Customs officers were
shocked when they opened the trailer belonging to Athena Lethcoe-Harman, 40, and
her husband, Jonathan Harman, 49. The animals were filthy, cold, emaciated,
dehydrated, sick and cowed, officials said. One dog was dead.
Lethcoe-Harman, a nationally
known collie breeder, told officials they were moving her operation from
The stench and filth were so
bad that crews wore hazardous materials suits the next day to unload the
animals' cages at the fairgrounds.
"You'd pick a cage off
the top and water and urine would fall on you," said Richard Stockdale, who
brought a trailer load of supplies that first day the 159 miles from Kalispell,
where he is animal control officer. The state Livestock Department quarantined
the animals because of possible disease and parasites.
Sheriff Donna Matoon knew
immediately that caring for the dogs indefinitely would be a huge job, one her
small community couldn't afford. She called for help.
The Humane Society of the
United States, the Cascade County Humane Society in Great Falls, the Lewis and
Clark Humane Society in Helena, the Montana Animal Care Association, the Helena
Kennel Club, and more, all mobilized for the rescue operation. The American
Working Collie Association arrived almost immediately - and had to restrain its
members across the nation from traveling to
"Presently the
wonderful people of
Teams of eight AWCA groomers
came to
The AWCA has spent thousands
of dollars for equipment and veterinary bills; brought in dozens of volunteers
from as far away as
The AWCA also provided
special collars, leashes, and stainless steel food bowls and water buckets for
every dog - and a chew toy for its pen.
"We provided - and will
continue to provide as long as the dogs are in custody - all the supplies
requested of us," Levitt said. "If we can get them donated from
manufacturers we will, and if we can get a discount we will. We will pay for
everything we can't get any other way."
Veterinarians Hardee Clark
of Shelby and Kelly Manzer of
But the bulk of more mundane
day-to-day work fell to volunteers, who continue to show up every day. Marie
Hellinger drives 24 miles from her farm east of
"We come on Tuesdays
and Wednesdays," said Chuck Cerny as he filled water buckets with a hose.
"That's when there are fewer volunteers."
Fewer volunteers during the
week means a lot more dogs for each volunteer to walk.
"When the volunteers
get back from midweek you can tell by their faces if all the dogs got
walked," said Linda Hughes, director of the Cascade County Humane Society
in
The dogs are housed at the
county fairgrounds, in the huge 4-H Barn. The 4-H Club set up sheep pens, 4-foot
steel and wire cubicles that hold two dogs each.
A plastic-enclosed area in
the even bigger main room holds more pens, and still another shelters seven
collie pups born in the first few days. Across the way is the sick bay, where a
few dogs are being treated by veterinarians. Propane heaters keep the building
warm.
The volunteers work within a
closely documented system set up by the sheriff's office to ensure all the
animals and all the chores - down to dog-poop duty - are done and documented.
Feeding time is
In a steamy wall tent inside
the 4-H Barn's huge main room, Meredith Beckedahl and Mayme Ober, both of
Shelby, wash and sterilize the empty bowls and buckets five mornings a week,
sometimes more.
"There is a
After breakfast the dogs are
taken for walks. Each dog has a numbered tag on its collar. Deanna Smith, who
runs the operation, methodically logs each animal and its volunteer companion in
and out as they go for walks. Every volunteer must provide photo ID.
While the pens are empty,
other volunteers rake the wood shavings out of the cage, spread lime on the dirt
floor to kill odor and parasites, and put in fresh shavings. Wheelbarrow loads
of the old go out a back door, building a mountain that will eventually be
trucked away.
"By now we've got it
down to a science," Hughes said.
Volunteers say they have
seen dramatic improvements in the dogs since they've been at
"You can't believe how
much stronger they are now than when they first came," Bob Miller said as
two big males towed him toward the field.
At first, some of the sick
and fearful dogs snapped at the people trying to help them. That's over now.
"Sometimes we'd say,
'Better stay away from that dog because sometimes he snaps,' " Hughes said.
"But with the kind of volunteers in
"'BC' used to stand for
Bite Case," she added. "Now it stands for Beautiful Collie."
Costs to
Officials hope the support
they received continues, because the dogs are likely to be here for months more.
The first trial for the Harmans, who have denied they mistreated the dogs, ended
in a hung jury.
Prosecutors say they
will try them again.
---
On the
Net:
Arizona residents scout out Harmans' new property
Web posted Monday, March 3, 2003
By CAROL BRADLEY
Special to the Peninsula Clarion
Upset by the saga of the collies in Montana, Diane Troxell of Arizona wondered
what type of facility dog owners Jon Harman and Athena Lethcoe-Harman had in
mind if and when they relocated their dogs to her part of the world.
To find out, Troxell recently chartered a small airplane. Together with her
husband and a friend, she flew over the Harmans' property.
On a flat, barren stretch of high desert south of the tiny town of Woodruff,
Ariz., Troxell spied a Quonset hut-style metal building and, adjacent to it,
four fenced dog runs.
It's what she didn't see that concerned her.
No source of power. No sign of water. And no shade.
"The metal building doesn't look large enough" to house the dogs,
Troxell said in a phone interview with the Great Falls Tribune in Great Falls,
Mont. And "if the dogs are outside in the desert sun and it's 100 degrees
in the summer, they're going to bake."
The Harmans were moving from Nikiski to Woodruff when U.S. Customs inspectors
stopped their tractor trailer late last Halloween night as the couple approached
the Canada-Sweet Grass, Mont., border stop.
By morning, the Harmans had been charged with animal cruelty, and by the
following night, authorities had removed 166 collies, five other dogs and 10
cats from the tractor trailer.
The dogs were thin, dehydrated, wet, cold and stressed, veterinarians testified
during the first trial. A number of the dogs were emaciated.
One dog was dead.
The seven-day trial in January resulted in a deadlocked jury and a mistrial.
Teton County Justice of the Peace Pete Howard will decide today whether to retry
the Harmans on 181 counts of misdemeanor animal abuse.
The Harmans' attorney is asking Howard to dismiss the case and let his clients
carry forward with plans to move their large kennel to Arizona.
The collies have been housed at the Marias Fairgrounds outside Shelby, Mont.,
for the last four months.
But Troxell worries that returning the dogs to the Harmans would only invite
more headaches.
"It becomes Arizona's problem if she repeats that pattern of
behavior," she said of Lethcoe-Harman.
Neighbors of the Harmans in Nikiski have described their kennel here as a maze
of rundown pens and outbuildings, known for its pungent odor and filthy dogs.
Defense attorney Scott Albers portrayed Lethcoe-Harman as a champion dog breeder
who let her Valiant Collies kennel swell in size because she was trying to breed
out collie eye anomaly, a condition that causes blindness in
2 to 5 percent of collies.
If the Harmans simply had been allowed to drive on through to Arizona, the dogs
would have been fine, Albers argued. At one point during the trial he held up a
photo of the newly constructed 40-foot-by-40-foot metal building
to demonstrate the degree of planning that had gone into the move.
That's not much bigger than the 45-foot-by-8-foot tractor trailer the dogs were
driven in the 2,240 miles from Alaska to Montana.
When the mistrial was declared, Troxell tracked down the coordinates of the
Harmans' property, which is south of the Navajo Nation and west of the Zuni
Indian Reservation in the northeastern section of the state.
It runs along a private dirt road a mile or two off a public dirt road, Troxell
said -- impossible to reach by ground without trespassing.
From her seat in the Cessna 172, she snapped photos of the site and mailed
copies to Toole County Attorney Merle Raph in hopes he'll use them during the
second trial, if one is held.
Two weeks ago, Troxell also e-mailed one of the photos to a collie chat room on
the Internet, where the picture generated considerable buzz.
A supporter of the Harmans identified on the chat site as Pennsylvania collie
breeder Lauren Wolfe responded that the metal building is insulated and
"will or does have" air conditioning. Solar panels will provide
electricity, she wrote.
She said the dogs would be let out in groups into the pens, which measure
48-feet by 196-feet, "and will come in to their own private kennels."
Contacted Friday, Wolfe declined to discuss the matter further.
A veterinarian at the Flagstaff Animal Hospital in Flagstaff, Ariz., which is
about 100 miles west of Woodruff, said he didn't think the high desert climate
would pose a hardship to the long-haired collies.
The Woodruff area is above 5,000 feet, Dr. Fred Bush said.
"It doesn't get too hot and it's real windy," he said. "It would
be parasite-free -- like Flagstaff. We don't have ticks, fleas, any of that
stuff."
He added that northeastern Arizona escapes terrible winters. "Maybe a
little snow. Not much," Bush said. "Six inches would be a lot."
It's uncertain how many collies the Harmans would house at the kennel. After the
mistrial was declared, Albers said Lethcoe-Harman was willing to adopt out some
70 of the dogs. She wanted to keep the remaining 100, he said.
Troxell said people can judge for themselves if the Arizona facility looks
adequate. A collie owner, she said her own dog can stand "about 20 minutes
out on the patio in the summertime" before wanting to come inside.
"I wish I didn't have to take the picture. I'm the kind of person that
minds my own business," Troxell said. But "it looks like there were
some really abhorrent conditions in Alaska. I don't want that to happen
here."
Carol Bradley is a reporter for the Great Falls Tribune.
Distributed in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107.
UPDATE 5/31/03 on the Montana Collies - Part 2
Statement by AWCA President Jean Levitt in Anaconda, MT
*Permission to crosspost*
Athena and Jon Harman were found guilty on all counts and chose not to
remain to hear the verdict. Simultaneously at 8:10 pm Athena and Jon
Harman drove out of the Deer Lodge Courthouse as the judge and jury entered the
courtroom. Sentencing will be in Shelby, MT, according to Judge Pete
Howard on Monday or Tuesday of next week. I am staying in Montana.
I'll be driving to Camp Collie Sunday morning to Great Falls with Marianne
Sullivan, Nancy McDonald, and Pati Merrill. On Sunday night I'll drive to
Shelby for sentencing.
Calmly,
Jean Levitt, President 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.
By CAROL BRADLEY
Tribune Staff Writer
Sunday, June 1, 2003
The six-person jury deliberated less than two hours before returning the unanimous verdict at 8 p.m.
Harman and Lethcoe-Harman didn't stick around for the outcome. They left the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County courthouse moments before the jury filed in. Their attorney, Scott Albers, also declined to comment.
An audience of 10 collie lovers burst into cheers and applause. A smiling Toole County Sheriff Donna Matoon, whose deputies arrested the Harmans in November, said, "I'm relieved, very relieved by the verdict."
The five-day trial was the second for the Harmans. They went on trial in Shelby in January, but that jury deadlocked and a mistrial was declared.
Deer Lodge County jurors filed out without comment except for Denise Scanlon, who said merely, "We feel that justice has been served."
The Harmans were arrested at the Port of Sweet Grass on Nov. 1 after U.S. customs inspectors discovered 170 dogs, mostly collies, and 10 cats that authorities said were hungry, dehydrated, diseased and shivering in the filthy truck. One dog was dead of starvation and pneumonia, and veterinarians testified that had the Harmans been allowed to drive on, more dogs would have died before they reached their new home in northeast Arizona.
The Harmans are expected to appeal the verdict to district court. The American Kennel Club automatically suspends breeders convicted of cruelty to animals for 10 years, which would effectively put Lethcoe-Harman out of business.
Teton County Justice of the Peace Pete Howard, who presided over the trial, said he'll set a sentencing date early this week.
The case of the collies -- and the town of Shelby's care for the dogs, which have been in Toole County custody for seven months -- has garnered national attention.
The Harmans pleaded not guilty, maintaining that, while they ran into bad luck moving their collie kennel from Nikiski, Alaska, to Arizona, they did not subject their animals to cruelty or negligence.
"Usually with an animal cruelty case you see broken ribs, gashes, problems that are life-threatening," defense attorney Albers told the jury. "All these animals needed was a bowl of food, a bowl of water and a bath."
Prosecutor Joe Coble of Teton County asked jurors not to believe the Harmans' "hocus-pocus." The couple has lied repeatedly about the caliber of care they gave their animals, he said.
"If they had a chance tomorrow, they would put them right back on that truck and they'd do it to 'em again," Coble said.
The Harmans left Nikiski on Oct. 23 and, over nine days, drove an estimated 2,240 miles into Canada's Yukon Territory and down through Alberta. They arrived at the U.S. border around 10:30 on Halloween night.
The couple testified they spent two years planning the trip but suffered misfortune after misfortune -- chiefly an engine fire that burned up a support vehicle full of dog food and supplies and the loss of a third driver who bowed out only three days into the trip.
Harman, 50, and Lethcoe-Harman, 40, testified they provided for the animals as well as they could under the circumstances.
In fact, they argued, their plan worked until authorities detained them at the border -- keeping the collies locked up in the trailer for another 18 hours. By the time the animals were removed the following afternoon they were in bad shape, the Harmans agreed, but it wasn't their fault, they said.
Lethcoe-Harman spent several hours on the witness stand Friday and Saturday rebutting veterinarians' claims that her dogs were dehydrated and, in many cases, emaciated.
For example, asked about dog No. 53, whom veterinarians had described as dehydrated and thin with crusty ears and eyes, Lethcoe-Harman said it was nothing food, water, Q-tips and some Visine couldn't cure.
Shown a picture of dog No. 165, whose shaven body exposed a nearly skeletal frame, she explained the dog had "very high energy" and, while he was on a "triple-feeding of puppy food a day," didn't like to eat on the road.
Lethcoe-Harman stood before the jury and beamed as she recalled the prizes her collies have won and the pleasure they have given her.
She denied admitting to Shelby veterinarian Hardee Clark that she had been unable to care for the dogs for three days before reaching the border, as Clark testified earlier in the week.
"I did not say it," Lethcoe-Harman testified vehemently. "It would not have been true. It would have been a lie."
In their closing arguments, Coble and Toole County Attorney Merle Raph counted up the number of witnesses the Harmans contradicted and asked jurors to decide for themselves who was telling the truth. The Harmans lied repeatedly to officials about the number of animals in their truck and claimed to have retrieved dogs that escaped from them from Palmer, Alaska, contradicting an eyewitness who said they drove away, leaving behind as many as a dozen collies.
Coble also questioned whether the Harmans stopped as often as they claimed along the way to feed, water and exercise the dogs. He pointed out that on the final day of their journey, they went 13 hours without once giving the animals a break.
"For 13 hours those dogs went with no light, water or food, laying in urine and feces," Coble said. The Harmans managed to feed themselves and go to the bathroom during the same period, he said.
"Think about who toughed it out. The animals toughed it out," he told the jury.
Lethcoe-Harman wept from time to time as the trial wound down. An audience of a dozen or so collie lovers listened carefully to the testimony in the oak-trimmed courtroom.
Raph was careful to make sure jurors understood they didn't have to find the Harmans guilty of every element of Montana's animal cruelty law. They could be found guilty merely of carrying or confining the animals in a cruel manner or of failing to provide them with proper food, drink or shelter, he said.
After the Harmans' first trial, the jury forewoman said jurors misinterpreted their instructions and thought they had to find the couple guilty of every component of the law.
The case of the collies prompted the state legislature to toughen the state law this spring, but the new language doesn't apply in this case.
Unlike the Toole County jury, which scribbled copious notes during the first trial, the Deer Lodge County jurors didn't take a single note. They absorbed the testimony stoically, giving no indication of their sentiments except for a lone occasion when one juror gaped open-mouthed at 8 x 10 photos of the Harmans' filthy truck.
For seven months now, Toole County has had custody of -- and responsibility for -- the collies, five other dogs and what's now 16 cats. A month ago the animals were transported to a metal warehouse in Great Falls. The Marias fairgrounds outside Shelby needed to reclaim the 4-H barn the collies had been housed in, and volunteers who had devoted up to 30 hours a week to the dogs were worn out.
Private donations have borne the cost of Camp Collie, which currently runs $1,000 a day, according to Toole County Undersheriff Don Hale.
Camp Collie volunteer Sandy Newton of Helena, who sat through most of the trial, called the verdict "a victory for the dogs."
"That's the best way to put it," fellow volunteer Candy Kirby of Helena chimed in as she wiped away tears.
Forty more volunteers who were dining at Jaker's in Great Falls whooped and hollered when they learned of the verdict.
Rescued animals get new homes
7/11/03
There is no shortage of takers: 500 people offered to adopt the animals.
Athena Lethcoe-Harman and her husband, Jon Harman, gave up all but four dogs and one cat after they were each convicted of 180 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty on May 31. They said they were moving to Arizona.
The couple had driven the animals -- 180 in all -- 2,240 miles over nine days in a filthy, ammonia-clogged trailer with little food or water. By the time the couple reached the Port of Sweet Grass, the animals were sick, hungry, dehydrated and full of parasites.
Unless they're too old or infirm to withstand surgery, the dogs will be spayed or neutered before they're released.
About a dozen of the dogs have gone home with volunteers who fed, watered, exercised and watched over the dogs for months, first at Shelby and then at Great Falls, while the legal case was concluded. The volunteers agreed to follow through with the surgeries.
In keeping with the sentencing agreement, 20 dogs believed to have superior genetics have been sent to a half dozen breeders from Washington state to Michigan.
Collie breeder Judy Wolf of Scottdale, Mich., who was prepared to testify on Athena Lethcoe-Harman's behalf but wound up not being asked, received six dogs. Authorities in Scottdale "couldn't say enough good things about her," Toole County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Lamey said.
Seven dogs were given to rottweiler breeder Gwen Towne Hogge, a friend of Lethcoe-Harman's in Alaska who did testify on her behalf during the Harmans' first trial in January, which ended with a hung jury.
Authorities on the Kenai Peninsula also gave Hogge a thumbs up, Lamey said.
The breeders are forbidden to sell or return the dogs to Lethcoe-Harman, Lamey said.
Three of the collies and three Stabyhounds belong to a Holland resident, Anita DeBruin Gamper. She is sending proof of ownership and presumably plans to arrange their return, Lamey said.
A mother and daughter pair of shelties found on the truck will go home with a woman in Ulm. Thirteen of the 16 cats have found new homes.
People asking to adopt the animals must clear background and home checks, Lamey said.
Having persuaded Toole County officials to cancel a marathon spay-neuter clinic last month, the American Working Collie Association has lined up several local veterinarians to perform the surgeries at a discount. The organization also will bring in veterinarians from around the region this weekend to perform surgeries at the now-closed McDonald veterinary clinic in Great Falls, AWCA President Jean Levitt said Wednesday.
Microchips were implanted under their skin a couple of weeks ago.
Mendota
animal care specialists assist in animal cruelty case
By:
JESSIE JOHNSON
7-11-03
On
Halloween night, 2002 a case began at the Montana-Alberta, Canada border that
left animal lovers across the country in an all-too real state of horror. It was
that night that a small semi trailer overloaded with close to 200 dogs and cats
in squalid pens was stopped by the border patrol, and a high-profile animal
cruelty case began receiving national attention.
Two Mendota animal care specialists, veterinarian Dr. Cathy Wolf and Amy
Campbell, a technician who assists Wolf at the Mendota Companion Animal Centre,
were able to travel to Montana and offer their professional assistance in the
case.
Breeders Jon Harman and Athena Lethcoe-Harman were in the process of
transporting 166 collies and six other dogs and 10 cats from Nikisi, Alaska to a
new home in Arizona when they were stopped at the United States border. Frozen
urine on the truck alerted border patrol, and the dehydrated and unsanitary
condition of the animals within was quickly discovered.
Rather than transport the animals in an appropriately sized vehicle outfitted
with stable stalls, the Harmans had overstuffed the trailer with wooden crates
and airline kennels, some cages stacked as many as four high. Over the course of
nine days, the Harmans had carried their freight an estimated 2,420 miles in
this rickety, overcrowded, poorly ventilated state without providing proper
nutritional or hygienic care. Several dogs were ill with contagious diseases,
according to Montana newspaper reports at the time, and at least one collie died
from inhaling e coli from the excrement trapped by the overcrowded conditions.
The animals were confiscated, and "Camp Collie" was set up in Shelby,
Montana’s Marias Fairgrounds to care for the animals, while the owners began
legal proceedings, including 181 counts of animal cruelty.
When Dr. Wolf, herself a member of the American Working Collie Association and
sometime breeder, heard about the case, she contacted Jean Leavitt, president of
the AWCA, to offer any assistance possible. She was familiar with Athena
Lethcoe-Harman, a breeder whose Valiant Collies operation specialized in turning
out genetically superior collies.
Wolf and Campbell ended up traveling to Camp Collie for a week in late November
to assist in assessing the animals’ medical condition, information that would
be used in prosecuting the breeders. Later, Wolf was called to the stand to
testify on the deplorable condition of the animals.
With the cold Montana wind and snow whipping through, the Marias Fairgrounds may
not have been an ideal housing situation for the animals, but it was more
sanitary than their prior quarters. Wolf recalled fighting the wind and snow to
get the doors open to the dark barn housing the animals to perform examinations.
"We examined all the animals that were there," she said, "Ten
cats and 180 dogs." Several litters of collie puppies were born in the time
the animals were in protective custody.
Wolf and Campbell saw the dogs at their worst, shortly after they were removed
from the Harmans. "When we got to the fairgrounds, the sight was just
horrific," said Campbell, "and the sight of the truck made me want to
cry."
"They were terribly emaciated, and their coats were matted, covered with
urine and feces," noted Wolf. "They had severe tartar, and almost
rotten teeth." The odor was terrible." She described the truck the
animals were transported in as being a tiny sealed up trailer with no windows or
ventilation, filled with stacks and stacks of dirty cages caked with animal
waste. "Nothing alive should ever be transported in that kind of a
thing," she said.
Wolf and Campbell describe the work they did with the animals as very sad, very
tough, and very exhausting, working morning until dark. "It was exhausting
both physically and mentally," said Wolf, "and we wanted to be able to
do more than what we did." She commended the efforts of Campbell, an animal
lover. "Amy worked so hard, she really put a lot of effort in."
The veterinarian and technician uncovered many abscesses, infections, and ear
hemorrhages, as well as many dogs whose grooming had reached such unhygienic
proportions their health was at risk.
In addition to providing veterinary care and assessments for the animals, Wolf
returned in May to deliver a statement on the condition of the animals at a
second trial. Enough time had passed that it was important to keep in jury
members’ minds the state of the animals when discovered. An earlier hearing
had ended in a mistrial when the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict, but
the county approved a retrial. Additional witnesses were called in to testify,
and in the end, the jury found the breeders guilty of animal cruelty. "I
was thrilled," said Wolf, "I felt like it was all worth something. It
was challenging to take the stand, being responsible for someone’s life,"
she shared. "But then you remembered pictures of those dogs…"
Wolf noted that Lethcoe-Harman was one of few breeders breeding specifically
Normal Eyed collies, that is, attempting to breed dogs free from congenital
visual anomalies that affect about 90 percent of collies. "She was working
for the health of a breed, but not of the individual dog," said Wolf, who
drew a parallel between Lethcoe-Harman’s treatment of the dogs and abusing and
neglecting children with developmental disorders.
Following the verdict, the breeders were denied the return of their animals,
with the exception of a fox terrier kept as a pet by Jon Harman, and one collie
that the diabetic Lethcoe-Harman claimed to utilize as a companion animal. As
part of their sentencing, the breeders will not be allowed to possess animals
for the next 10 years. The animals kept at Camp Collie were transferred to a
more suitable holding site at a warehouse in the city of Great Falls, and many
are currently being spayed, neutered, and placed into homes.
Campbell and Wolf both note that the experience was eye-opening as to what sort
of neglect is possible. They both acknowledge that the condition of the animals
was likely a result of Lethcoe-Harman improperly assessing the scale of
operation she could handle. "What was she thinking, trying to take care of
200 dogs? These people were so over their heads that they just didn’t care
anymore," said Wolf, responding to the report that the breeders actually
left dogs behind at rest stops along their journey if they got loose, leaving at
least one to be hit on the road. "She didn’t realize that she couldn’t
take care of all those animals," said Campbell. "Thankfully, she got
stopped."