[ SHOWGSD-L ] long, but VERY interesting

From: Peggy <pmick@xxxxxxxxx>
To: showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005 23:16:13 -0400
Permission to cross-post was granted. This piece is by far the best I 
have read on the current AKC situation. 
----- Original Message -----
From: raotinc@xxxxxxx <mailto:raotinc@xxxxxxx>
To: undisclosed-recipients: <mailto:undisclosed-recipients:>
Sent: Tuesday, September 13, 2005 10:17 AM
Subject: [NAIA-AnimalTalk] Continental Kennel Club/PAWS
PERMISSION TO CROSSPOST.

I just received a phone call from a local Fancy member who has been active 
in breeding/showing for more than twenty years.  She called because she 
was 
looking in our local paper and could only find three listings for AKC 
dogs among
hundreds of CAC listings.  She said that she had not looked at the ads in 
the paper for some time and what she saw shocked her.  "What happened 
to  all
the AKC breeders?" she asked.  I told her I was aware of the problem  
and had
been seeing it get worse for many years. 

Then, I asked if she remembered the presentations that I had made to our 
kennel club on this very issue.  The point of my presentations was that 
the 
Fancy was killing itself by being so choosy about whom they sold dogs to 
and by 
charging so much for pets.  She remembered.  She said that she had no  idea
that the situation was this bad.  She added that AKC's inspections  were 
also a
problem and said the inspectors were like "Nazis."  She also  disliked 
the AKC
rule requiring that each dog wear a collar with its name on  it.  She said
she knew all her dogs' names and did not need a collar to  remind her.

Over the years this woman and I have discussed the Fancy and animal  
rights. 
She is a bit "AR-fuzzy."  For example, she rarely  breeds.  I have never
known her to have more than one litter every couple  of years.  She is 
very proud
of who gets her dogs but does not, however,  charge exorbitant prices for
them. She told me today that she thought I had  exaggerated the problem 
- until
now. 

What problem?  It is that the AKC has been committing a slow suicide  for
years.  It has done so in an attempt to placate philosophical  
extremists.  Did
these extremists march, armed, in the front door and  demand anything of 
the
AKC?  No.  Instead, they read "The Art of  War."  Not only did they read 
it,
they studied it. They plotted, they  planned and they went into action.  
They
propagandized and perpetrated  misrepresentations and lies.  They did it by
speaking to the hearts of dog  lovers, not their minds. Ultimately, they
infiltrated.  Inserting  actual dissidents was not necessary.  They had 
sycophants
sympathetic to  their cause.  These sycophants, some of them in the Dog 
Fancy,
urged the  AKC to change.  Members of the Fancy who helped convince the 
AKC were
not  even aware of the AR influence.  Yet, the result was that the AKC 
slowly 
morphed away from being merely a registry and into an "all-purpose" 
organization. 

How did this happen?  When animal rights' extremists accused the AKC  of
irresponsible breeding, the Fancy got more "responsible."  When AR  
extremists
accused the Fancy of being "puppy millers," the Fancy bred fewer  litters. 
When AR extremists accused the Fancy of breeding for profit and  not 
caring who
got their puppies, the Fancy began treating the sale of puppies  like "
adoptions."  When AR extremists accused the Fancy of breeding for  
"vanity," the
Fancy started testing for all the potential genetic problems for  which 
they could
possibly test.  When the AR extremists accused the Fancy  of not caring 
what
happened to dogs they had bred, the Fancy started purebred  rescue and 
taking
back dogs when "adoptions" failed.  Nevertheless, no  matter what the Fancy
did, it was not enough.  What the Fancy failed to  realize was that 
nothing it
did, or could ever do, short of stopping breeding  entirely, would make 
animal
rights extremists happy. 

In other words, whenever extremists attacked them, the Fancy "fought back" 
by trying to become a kinder, gentler AKC.  The more it gave on issues, 
the 
more its registration numbers decline, while  registrations with the 
"third 
world" registries have grown exponentially.  The AKC has already moved 
as  far
as it can afford to move.

Two forces drive the AKC now, whether the current board understands the  
fact
or not.  One is the continual public criticism of the AKC by animal  
rights'
extremists, and their sycophants, who want to eliminate all  breeding.  
While
this minority is small, they are extremely successful at  framing issues,
using isolated examples to denigrate all breeders, and selling  their 
views to the
masses.  They, also, take any incremental change in law,  or philosophy,
which furthers their extremist agenda.  The AKC is  apparently totally 
blind to
how seriously this affects and effects them. 

The other driving force is declining registrations.  The AKC is, no  doubt,
growing increasingly desperate to reverse this trend.  It has to  affect 
every
decision that the Board of Directors' makes.  Blaming the  decline on bad
publicity and so-called "puppy millers," who have moved to other  
registries to
avoid the AKC rules and regulations, is so easy.  Both, no  doubt, 
negatively
affected registrations.  For instance, bad publicity  probably served to 
open
some potential owners' minds to getting dogs registered  with other 
registries.
  Pandora's box, thus opened, provided ample  opportunity for puppy mill
breeders sick of AKC's new policies to go to other  registries and they 
did. 

The AKC is just now awakening to these facts and, in a desperate effort to 
right past wrongs and inaction, it is endorsing PAWS.  The problem is that 
damage is already done.  Animal rights' extremists defeated the AKC in  
"round
one."  The enactment of PAWS will not "revamp" AKC's image like it  
hopes and
it will not increase registrations.  What it will do is give  round two to
the extremists by default.

The only way that AKC can effectively address the continued decline in 
registrations is to abandon its useless attempts to garner the approval 
of an 
extremist group.  Animal rights extremists will never, under any  
circumstances,
ever approve of what the AKC does, i.e., register dogs.  The  AKC 
absolutely
cannot afford to get this one wrong; however, if PAWS is any  indication 
of what
they have planned, the Fancy is in very deep trouble.

PAWS will contribute to a further decline in registrations.  What the  AKC
fails to see is that:  The fewer dogs registered with AKC, the more  dogs
registered with the third-world kennel clubs.  The more registered  with 
third-world
kennel clubs, the fewer ads there are with AKC dogs in  them.  The ads are
how most people learn about the AKC.  One is not  born knowing what 
A-K-C stands
for.  Most people, even if they know someone  who shows dogs, could not 
tell
which registry was behind the shows if their  lives depended on it.  If the
AKC does not appear in ads, it will fade  still further from the public's
awareness.  Ultimately,  AKC will be a  sad echo of things past, the 
fond memory of
old timers who like to share stories  of the grand old days.   

The AKC is a dog registry.  Any illusions it may have that it can  
"recreate"
itself in the image of an organization like HSUS need to be  rethought. 
Nothing would be a more fatal blow to AKC than such an  attempt.  Those 
groups
are not registries.  They can and will thrive  whatever happens to the AKC.
Those organizations are parasites that profit from  continuous negative 
assaults
on the AKC, knowing it to be the "flag ship" of the  registry fleet.  If 
they
take it down, they doom the Fancy but all they  have to do is start 
attacking
another registry. 

AKC is at a pivotal point in its history.  When training dogs, if one  
has a
problem, one "returns to the basics," and that is exactly what AKC 
needs  to
do. RETURN TO THE BASICS!

Donna    



Donna  Malone
Vice President, Responsible Animal Owners of Tennessee - a nonprofit 
organization promoting the humane treatment of animals and responsible 
animal
ownership - Because Love is Not Enough!
Email: _raotinc@xxxxxxxx
(http://groups.yahoo.com/group/raotrescue/post?protectID=194166253165082116025218175024247208098145211)
 
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/raotrescue/post?protectID=194166253165082116025218175024247208098145211%29>
   
Website: _www.raot.org_
(http://www.raot.org/) <http://www.raot.org/%29>
Board Member of  Memphis Kennel Club


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[ SHOWGSD-L ] long, but VERY interesting

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