NEWS

Camp Collie survivor receives Purple Paw

Scott Thompson
sthompson@greatfallstribune.com

For most of Grace's life, she was terrified at the sound of large trucks.

See, she was dog No. 7 to come off a tractor-tractpr on Halloween night 2002 after authorities stopped it at the Sweet Grass border crossing north of Shelby en route to Arizona from Alaska. Grace was one of 170 dogs, mostly collies, and 11 cats crammed into the rig.

"We would have her in the backyard and a semi or UPS truck or garbage truck would drive by, and she would just stop," said Rita Staley, Grace's owner. "From the tip of her nose to the tip her tail, she would just like a leaf shake. She was scared. And you know it had to do with where …"

"… she was brought up as a puppy," said Ron Staley, Rita's husband.

"And that is one of the good things, I guess, with the old age," Rita continued. "She's not scared of those trucks (now that she's deaf)."

It's no surprise the experience on that truck scarred Grace, who was 6 to 12 weeks old while on that abysmal journey.

Some of the crates housing the animals had tipped over. The animals were malnourished, dehydrated and caked with urine and feces.

All the animals were seized at the border and housed first at the Marias County Fairgrounds in Shelby and later in Great Falls for 9 months since they became evidence in a case against breeders Jonathan and Athena Ann Lethcoe-Harman.

Grace is the last known survivor of Camp Collie. She also is the Animal Foundation's Purple Paw winner .

The Staleys deserve an award, as well. The Great Falls couple traveled to Shelby every weekend for months to lend a hand.

"It was a full day of just working very hard to do whatever was necessary," said Ron, who said volunteers would clean kennels, dog dishes, feed the animals and walk them. "It was just get up there and work like the dickens and then have to drive all the way back to Great Falls."

It was worth it, the Staleys said, because they grew a special bond to Grace from her time at Camp Collie and then were able to adopt her.

"We have been so blessed by having Grace," Ron said. "All the work we did at Camp Collie to help with that need, the reward of having Grace all these years, we have come out on the good end of that stick multiple times."

Despite the cruelty Grace endured in her first weeks, she always has been a sweet dog.

"Grace never met another dog that she didn't like," Rita said.

"She likes other dogs," said Ron. The Staleys, who have been married just a few months short of 20 years, like to finish each other's sentences.

"She's always friendly to other dogs and cats," he continued, before doing his best impersonation of Grace's voice if she were human by adopting a falsetto. "'Let's go play; How are you? I'm just fine.'"

For a while, those from the area who adopted collies from Camp Collie would meet at one of the dogs' homes each month.

Grace, who was one of the smallest dogs, was a hit with the other canines.

"All the other dogs would congregate on her," Rita said. "It was kind of scary at first because all the dogs would be in a corner, and then all of a sudden a dog would shoot out of the bottom of the pile, and it was Grace. And she'd run to the other side of the yard, not out of fear, but just playing, 'Hey ,look at me.'"

"You can't catch me," Ron said, again in the falsetto.

"They all played, and it was funny to watch," Rita said. "She would just flirt and then come up and head the other way as soon as she got them all riled up."

"She always slept really good on collie day," Ron said.

In addition to her reputation as a flirt, Grace also earned the name of Princess, because the Staleys have babied her.

Now, with Grace in her geriatric years — "It's a matter of days or months, not years," Ron said — she deserves the royal treatment after entering this life in such squalid conditions.

The legacy of Camp Collie

Camp Collie, which rocked all of northcentral Montana, hasn't resulted in huge legislative changes, but many believe the case has had a lasting effect.

The Harmans, who brought the dogs into Montana en route to Arizona from Alaska in 2002, were convicted of 180 misdemeanor counts of animal cruelty and received 10-year deferred sentences and had to give up most of their animals. They didn't have to pay fines nor reimburse the tens of thousands of dollars for the animals' care during their stay at Camp Collie.

Then-Sen. Mitch Tropila, D-Great Falls, introduced legislation to make sentences stiffer in such cases during the 2009 legislative session, although Gov. Judy Martz signed into law a 2003 bill that made it a felony to purposely torture or terrify an animal or abuse or neglect a kennel or herd of 10 or more animals.

While Tropila's later bill failed, he thinks that the legacy of Camp Collie is in the awareness it raised.

"It (and other cases) played a big role in making people realize the cost of hoarding," he said.

It also, he thinks, was a factor in making people think about adopting animals.

He knows firsthand.

His family adopted Peigi from Camp Collie.

"We were very happy, very thankful," Tropila, now a state representative, said. "She was part of our family for six years."

The Tropilas have adopted another collie since Peigi's death in 2009.

He doesn't have hard evidence, but Tropila feels that there are countless others doing the same.