[ SHOWGSD-L ] Carmen Battaglia
- From: JMoses0924@xxxxxxx
- To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2007 23:52:02 EDT
"In the end, it is not the words of our enemies that we remember, but the
silence of our friends"
- Martin Luther King
Sheree read that quotation to me a few weeks ago, and it has bothered me.
Many of you have asked why I joined the list at this time...I don't usually
get involved in club politics, and I generally ignore gossip, but it has
become
apparent to me in recent weeks that the "list," instead of being the
edcuational tool that it was intended to be, has become instead a gossip
column,
frequently full of innuendo, misinformation and personal vendettas.
For decades, Carmen Battaglia's name has been known throughtout the entire
the entire dog fancy as being synonomous with German Shepherds. For many
years, he has also been indentified with the American Kennel Club. He has
been a
tireless advocate for our breed, for our members, and for dogs in general.
Any German Shepherd person who doesn't realize what tremendous benefit we
have derived from having him as our delegate and our representativeto the dog
world at large, doesn't really have a clue.
There has been an enormous amount of information pertaining to Carmen,
Hunte, the AKC, it's financing, CARS, Petland etc. disseminated on this list,
much
of which was taken out-of-context or presented with misleading half-truths.
For example; Yes, Carmen and Steve Gladstone, in their positions as members
of the Board of Directors of the American Kennel Club, did go to the Hunte
Corporation, but not for personal gain or promotion, but at the behest of the
American Kennel Club to discuss the DNA and microchipping programs. Yes,
Carmen and Andrew Hunte were both seated on the same row in the VIP box at
Eukanuba, however, Hunte was there as the invited guest of the Iams
Corporation,
the show's sponsor, and at no time was he seated with Carmen, as was suggested
on this list. Andrew Hunte's decision to join the parent club was his own.
Carmen had nothing to do with that decision. Any director of the parent
club who can say that Carmen attempted to influence the outcome of the vote on
Hunte's membership, or to "intimidate" as was stated on this list, any board
member into voting for Hunte, should step forward and tell me and the
membership, exactly what Carmen did to influence that decision. Why is it
that every
time Hunte's name is mentioned, Carmen is apparently to blame? If Hunte had
elected to purchase a Cardigan Welsh Corgi for a houspet, rather than a
German Shepherd, would Steve Gladstone be facing the same hate-campaign?
I understand that Andrew Hunte and all of the issues associated with him are
very troubling and emotional. What I do not understand is why this list was
used as a way to attack Carmen Battaglia as a man. It went far beyond his
association with Hunte, in his position as an AKC director investigating
possibilities with Large-Volume Breeder registration, and the DNA/microchipping
programs. It was suggested that Carmen's decisions were influenced by
financial
gain. His abilities as a judge were attacked and he was attacked as an
individual. Someone even made the statement on this list that Carmen gave bad
advice to the parent club regarding the Daytona incident thus costing the
parent club $2500.00...this is another perfect example of why I am writing.
At
the time of the incident, which I am unfortunately intimately involved with,
Carmen was not a director of the parent club, but he was a menber of the Board
of Directors of the American Kennel Club. As such, and knowing he could be
called on as a director of the AKC to decide the case if it got that far, he
did not offer any advice to the parent club at the time except to tell them to
tell the truth. When it did reach AKC, Carmen once again went to bat for
us, and the fine was only $2500.00, and we were ablr to keep our National.
The
Brittany club, under almost identical circumstances, paid a $10,000.00 fine.
I don't think our club's association with Carmen harmed us in this
instance, rather he was an asset.
Regarding the infamous letter, Carmen made a serious mistake, but it is one
I could have made myself. Every person running for the BOD of the AKC send
out a packet with their credentials. It is customary to include a letter of
endorsement from the delegate's club. Carmen had asked Lew for a letter of
endorsement , and had in fact provided the draft for Lew's signature. Lew had
verbally agreed and told Carmen it was on it's way. The deadline for mailing
out the packets in time for the delegate body to receive them before they
left for the meeting was very close. Carmen knew Lew had sent the letter, so
he signed Lew's name and included it in the packet, expecting to have the
original in a day or two. He should have waited, but I understand he needed
to
get the packets mailed and knowing it was on it's way, I could have made the
same mistake myself. By the time Lew informed Carmen that he didn't feel he
could make the endorsement and told Carmen no to use the letter, the packets
had already been mailed. A mistake, yes, but probably not a mortal sin. As
far as our club not endorsing Carmen as our delegate, I personally can find no
REAL reason why any member of the GSDCA should think we should not support
Carmen as our delegate. No, I am not trying to say that Carmen is a perfect
person. None of us are.
Carmen's record of service to this club, this breed, and dogs in general,
speaks for itself. Carmen has accomplished more for dogs, without any
personal
gain, that many of the rest of us put together. It amazes me that we are so
unappreciative of his efforts over the years. Some people on this list seem
to have taken perverse enjoyment in thinking they got him defeated in the
AKC election, but in fact it was his enthusiastic endorsement of the Working
Dog Sport and his refusal to support PAWS that played a much larger role in
his
defeat. Carmen made a number of enemies in his long pursuit of WDS...do any
of you think that the Chihuahua club of America or the Pomeranian club, or
the Poodle club, or the Finnish Spitz club, etc. think that in our litigious
society, having Schutzhund-type events at AKC shows is a good idea? Do any of
you have any inkling of how hard Carmen lobbied, how many favors he asked,
how many compromises he made to accomplish this for us? Carmen has always
believed strongly that ours is a multi-facted breed. He has visited the
facilities at Lackland and has always embraced the working aspect of our
breed. The
tragedy of 911 and it's aftermath and the lack of availability of suitable
working dogs, brought home to him the necessity of having something like WDS
to encourage us as breeders to strive harder to have truly "working" dogs.
Carmen might well have lost this election anyway. It is shameful to me that
the actions of our club and the dissension we presented, were the nails in the
coffin....and personally hurtful to a man who has always supported us and
our breed.
Any of you who have been in dogs for a while, know that success brings all
sorts of cheap shots. Being visible makes you vulnerable. Sometimes it seems
that success = envy = dislike....not right, but the way it seems to be for
some people. Once people get a really good dog, they usually realize that the
dog game isn't nearly as political as they might have been led to
believe...the good dogs usually win. That's not to say that experience or a
good
handler or a good mentor doesn't help a lot...it does. Knowing which judges
would
probably like which dogs, having them trained, keeping them in good
condition, presenting them in the style that particular judge wants to
see...these
things all matter. But they are things we can all learn and do with
experience
and a little luck. Tearing down people who have worked hard to be successful
is not the way to go about it.
Some of the newer, or older, but still fair-minded people on the list who
listen to these chronic, negative posts...should ask what are these people's
credentials, what have they accomplished in German Shepherd Dogs, what have
they
done for German Shepherd Dogs. I don't believe that a couple of the more
vocal, negative posters even have a German Shepherd as a housepet, yet they
evidently consider themselves authorities on every subject relating to this
breed.
To borrow a line from Lew, "Let's encourage, not discourage." We are all
human, we all make mistakes, we all learn from what went wrong yesterday and
try to do a better job tomorrow. It would be nice if the people on this list
would not be so quick to rush judgment and would give people the benefit of
the doubt, instead of assuming the worst and speculating without the whole
picture. A man is the sum of all his parts, not just a single act. Carmen's
personal integrity, abilities and devotion to this breed have proven over and
over again through the years. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt and be
grateful to have someone who cares so much about our breed and the sport of
purebred dogs in our corner.
James Moses
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