Lethcoe-Harman is only part of the problem, and prosecuting her is part of the solution. But like most of the breeders that AAS has talked to or have heard first-hand stories of, she is not very bright, probably not very educated, and does not understand - the way we understand - what she is doing.

The real problem is the AKC and other self-serving (not animal-serving) agencies such as the ASPCA that have permitted her and thousands of others to inflict the vilest cruelty on millions of dogs for decades. Lasting change, not a flash in the pan like the Lethcoe-Harman story, would be achieved if these agencies were investigated for the fraudulent misuse of funds meant for animal welfare going into their own pockets or being used simply to generate more donations.

These agencies have done nothing - of substance - to prevent thousands of women like Athena Lethcoe-Harman to profit from unregulated breeding and selling.

Even so-called "good" breeders are the problem. They all rally behind each other to cover up the atrocities of fellow breeders. They don't want anyone looking too closely at breeding in case what they are doing is regulated too. They don't want the cost of the business they do to rise.

Lethcoe-Harman's cheap, dirty operation became blatant because she didn't have the brains to hide what she was doing. But she probably didn't feel the need to hide what she was doing because this kind of thing goes on all the time and almost no one ever gets into trouble. That is thanks to the avoidance of the expense of real work by the well-heeled, well-educated suits at the so-called animal welfare organizations. These big "name" organizations make millions from generous animal-loving donators who believe that they are "doing something" about the hundreds of thousands of puppy mill breeders, some of whom are ever larger and worse than Lethcoe-Harman.

The breeding business, led by the AKC in the U.S., hire expensive lawyers and lobbyists to try to thwart any humane regulations. They have so far succeeded because real animal-lovers are unorganised and relatively poor, and the big wealthy organizations such as SPCAs, have used the money that donators expect them to spend on issues just like this, to pay themselves handsomely and to hire lawyers to silence their critics instead of to get regulations to prevent the abuses of puppy mills.

What is the solution? AAS's solution to the problem of the self-serving, not animal-serving BC SPCA was to investigate it and expose it on our web site thereby forcing it to reform and start to do real animal welfare (which we believe, cautiously, it is attempting to do). So we think that the whole breeding industry must be investigated, exposed, and regulated and that, in BC, the BC SPCA must insist to the government that this huge industry must be regulated, both financially and humanely. What do you think?