AKC contracts with Petland

This was posted to one of the JRT/PRT lists. If it's accurate, I remain
baffled as how using the AKC's name to market puppy mill produce sold in a
chain pet stores "promotes purebred dogs" in any positive way. :-P

*****PERMISSION TO CROSS POST GRANTED*****
September 13, 2006
From: Sally Nist, AKC Delegate, RCKC
To: Rapid City Kennel Club members

This will be somewhat short as it is late and I will write a more
complete report tomorrow. I am just back from the fall Delegate
meeting. It began with the normal committee elections and a vote on
the first proposed amendment. That was an amendment limiting outside
activities by delegates. AKC said it was to assist us if we had to
remove a delegate for conflict of interest but it was really setting
a stage of sorts. The existing restrictions were enlarged to keep
people out of the delegate body who didn't support "AKC objects".
Dennis Sprung and Board members explained that we could then
keep "animal rights" people from "taking over the AKC".

Amy Dahl...

This is rich considering that AKC's Board Chairman Menaker and
his wife, and a number of Board members, have donated to Humane
USA PAC and the Pennsylvania GOP, in support of Puppy Protection
Act and PAWS sponsor Senator Rick Santorum.

Have they not already "taken over"?

Amy Dahl

After lunch came the regular reports from the Treasurer, the new
archive program, etc. Buried in the Treasurer's report was a very
quick mention of a "new contractual relationship" between AKC and
the Petland chain of stores (120 in the US, with 20 more planned for
2007). The difference between Petland and PetSmart or PetCo is that
they sell puppies at Petland.

During the final portion of the meeting, several delegates--who were
completely caught off guard by the news of the contract--brought up
their concern and asked for more information. We were told that "we
would never see the contract (which I heard from another delegate
was just signed last Friday)", it is necessary for AKC to meet the
bottom line, and that it was the wave of the future and we should
get on board. At one point David Merriim, the attorney for AKC
actually said he had not seen the contract (great boos and laughter
ensued) and that if we don't work with Petland to get more dogs
registered we will be looking at $75 entry fees and become
an "elitist organization" . NOTE: you will be able to read the full
details in a couple of days on the AKC website so excuse me if my
quotes are not completely accurate. They may not be 100% correct but
very, very close.

From what we could gather from the very sketchy info parsed out by
the AKC staff to the delegates, the Board of Directors and
the "Management Team" have signed a contract with Petland endorsing
the sale of puppies under the AKC banner, with the Petland sales
people encouraging people to register the puppies with AKC. Needless
to say, all will be sold with no conditional breeding paperwork, as
is done by breeders who sell directly to new owners.

You will see when you read the minutes on the website that the
discussion went on for a couple of hours. I was in line to speak but
everyone had covered my thoughts and I stepped out. Main concerns
were the breeding of these puppies, the fact that we have always put
AKC above "puppy mills and puppy sales at stores", the fact that
these puppies will be the rescue dogs of the future, etc. A motion
was made by the Golden Retriever club delegate that the delegates
vote to let the board know we want them to rescend the contract. The
AKC staff kept saying that it was a "non-binding, sense of the
delegation vote". It carried nearly unanimously.

The delegate body is stunned. Of course, by the vote earlier in the
day, we are not "supporting the AKC object" but I, for one, think it
is critical that if members of RCKC do not agree with this sudden
and secret action taken by the AKC without any notification of the
general population it supposedly supports, we must make our voices
heard.

I suggest letters be sent to Dennis Sprung, to every member of the
Board of Directors, and every single higher-level management person.
Alternative ways to obtain additiional funds (which does have an $8M
reserve) we might consider release of the expensive NYC property, a
pay cut by AKC staff (often done in private industry to save a
business), cutting Board expenses, reviewing every expense line by
line, etc.

If you so direct, and if I am elected your delegate to the AKC (a
position I would like to hold in the upcoming year), I will vote
against every single member of the Board of Directors on this issue
alone, no matter how fabulously they may have served the fancy in
the past. I will carry any message to the next meeting on this
matter.

If this is not a concern, we can move on to other issues. If the
anger expressed by delegates is representative of the anger of
concerned breeders and members of RCKC, I urge everyone to act. The
contract has been signed and none of the delegates is sure if any
action can change anything but we can express our outrage and the
new direction AKC has taken. It began with our new embrace and
acceptance of "large volumne breeders"--some might say puppy mills--
and this seems to be the final nail in the coffin to separate
legitimate, concerned breeders from pet shop suppliers.>>

"Fostering harmony between the human and non-human animals of our world."

Pat Miller, CPDT, CDBC
Peaceable Paws, LLC
PO Box 3146
Hagerstown, MD 21741
301-582-9420
_www.peaceablepaws. com_ (
http://www.peaceabl epaws.com/)
Author of "The Power of Positive Dog Training," and "Positive
Perspectives"
Member ABMA, IAABC
Member APDT, #1238P, exp 12/06