JUly 20, 2012
the editorial
FINANCES AND OTHER MATTERS IN THE MINUTES Once again revenues for the month were up over last year while operating expenses remained level with last year resulting in a tidy surplus of over $413,000. The proposed By-Law Amendment from the Lewiston-Auburn KC to preclude any former AKC employee from serving on the Board of the American Kennel Club is something these pages have long supported. Whether or not it can pass Board scrutiny to say nothing of garnering a two third vote remains to be seen but it certainly is a move in the right direction. Let’s face it in the last election at least two former employees ran for the Board, one of whom succeeded in getting elected. This is a practice that must be nipped in the bud that’s for sure. The Trial Boards were restructured and but for our objections stated in last week’s editorial this was a necessary and probably effective step to take. Miracle of miracles the Board is reviewing a proposal to expand eligibility requirements for AKC membership to permit licensed Agility clubs that met the criteria to apply to become AKC members. That too should have been done ages ago and the likelihood of its passage is remote also but an absolute necessity insofar as these pages are concerned. Also at long last the Board has become realistic and will consider Staff’s recommendation to raise the $250 one-time admission fee for new member clubs to $1,500. The present fee of $250 was established in 1925 and not a penny raised since then!! Come on, this is another favorite topic of these pages, which at long last is being at least considered by the Board.
AN APHIS EXTENSION The original deadline to contact APHIS about its proposed rule changes was Monday, July 16th. Just two days earlier on Friday, July 13th, the deadline was extended by APHIS to August 15!! This gives us all a few more weeks to try and persuade these people that its proposed rule changes regulating breeders must be reversed. You can make comments directly to the APHIS site through the following link: <http: www.regulations.gov/#! DocumentDetail: D=APHIS-2011-003-001> You are urged to contact this link and express your feelings. AKC’s petition is said to have over 66,000 signatures, which is great, but don’t forget HSUS is using a similar tactic too. Unfortunately these petitions will count as only one comment so it becomes all the more important to contact APHIS individually and directly. Wayne Pacelle is being his usual obnoxious, self-deprecating and misleading self-promoting exaggerated and untrue statements about AKC and we breeders generally in this matter. APHIS is said to have agreed to this extension to provide people more time to comment. This could be true considering that APHIS released a revised fact sheet about the proposed regulations only 10 days prior to the end of the comment period. Ultimately it would seem that more confusion was caused about what APHIS is trying to do with the release of this new fact sheet particularly in the area of how APHIS would treat face-to-face sales. Get involved in this project for sure. It certainly would have been nice to have seen the Board at its last meeting take on this issue again since reinforced reminders of the dangers of these proposals to the concerned breeder must not and cannot be either ignored nor under-emphasized. THE LATEST BOARD MINUTES The good-news was that prior to the printing of the Board Minutes the abandoned Board Highlights were sent out to all Delegates and will in the future be issued as a Press Release as well. In somewhat of a compromise the Delegate Committees may contact Staff “for easily obtained information” just as any Delegate may do but both the CEO (Sprung) and the COO (Lyons for now) may serve on the Coordinating Committee. There are more designees than you can shake a stick at as the Board sought to outline A PROTOCOL for DELEGATE STAFF PARTICIPATION! Now then if that’s not an attempt to smooth the feathers of the Delegate Committees so upset over the loss of Staff doing their work for them tell us what is. Now the Delegate Committee members should set up a fund out of the expense monies they pocket and reimburse Staff for doing their job! And this protocol is so very important to the running of AKC—it is??? —That AKC Board has reserved the right to change Staff participation however it MUST first notify the Coordinating Committee before taking such action!! Bollix-whose running the show these pages want to know-the Board or the Delegate Coordinating Committee? Perhaps the Board and the Delegates should have rethought the entire idea and implementation of the Reserve Best in Show award instead of worrying so about having someone else doing the Delegates’ work for which they are more than adequately compensated. After all it was the Delegates whose idea it was to introduce the RBIS—not Staff and that is a given fact thank you very much. 10 Dog News
A UNANIMOUS APPROVAL The Board unanimously approved effective January 1, 2013 insofar as grooming space at dog shows is concerned a policy requiring clubs to offer day of event grooming spaces for which there is no charge. A conformation club may also at its option offer reserved grooming/crate space for a fee. Any club desiring to offer paid reserved grooming space shall submit, with its application to AKC for the holding of such an event, a plan detailing the paid and unpaid space, which is then subject to AKC approval. This contentious move on the part of the Board has resulted in great debate within the Fancy. It has been the contention of these pages that free grooming and crating space is an absolute right and tradition of the sport. Others believe just as strongly that a club has the absolute right to establish its own ground rules when holding a show and if they want to charge they have every right to do so. This is somewhat of a compromise attitude adopted by the Board and while it does not satisfy everyone it at least provides some equity at the shows and offers the participants the right to chose between paid and free grooming areas. THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK Two items about which these pages would like to comment are as follows: At long last the Board will at least discuss the appropriate use of Service Dog vests presumably by show dogs as they travel on commercial airlines. This has been one of the pet peeves of these pages and while it has taken much too long for the topic to be raised at all it is gratifying to see that at least some discussion is planned for the future. Also these pages are delighted to see that at very long last Staff has proposed to add the National General Kennel Club (China), to the list of registries with pedigrees acceptable for AKC registration. These pages have been promoting this recognition for NGKC for nearly a decade now to no avail whatsoever. Indeed certain people within Staff are alleged to have linked Dog News’ stand with a monetary payment form the Chinese. Nothing could have been nor ever was further from the truth. As AKC’s then sole partner in establishing a pedigree process it was a matter of principle for these pages with economics having nothing at all to do with it. Of course there have been major personnel changes in NGKC and while we are somewhat both unfamiliar and out of touch with the new people in charge it is more than gratifying to read that at long last such a recognition is under review.