The AKC has the stench of death and soiled undergarments about it, like an old lady with a busted colostomy bag.The Today Show, on NBC this morning, told the truth about the AKC and this time instead of bunkering, the AKC decided to put a paid spokes-idiot front and center to try to defend their conduct.
It was a disaster.
This poor lady had no facts and no frame. She was like a clay pigeon in flight, getting pounded by shot, and it was worse than if the AKC had simply issued a whining press release like they usually do.
Knowing they were toast, the AKC decided to snap a jelly pack, and they sent out a notice to all breed clubs to bombard NBC and The Today Show with a "it's not faaaaiirrr" wave of whimpering, crying, and garment rending. Screen shot below.
Not a word was said about the dogs.
Not a word was said about the fact that they have only 9 inspectors for the entire country and that spending money on their expensive headquarters on Madison Avenue is a more important value to them than the health and safety of dogs.
Not a word of apology to the dog owners that are saddled with billions of dollars in veterinary costs every year because they foolishly buy diseased, defective and deformed AKC dogs.
Not a word about the fact that the AKC gives special financial deals to puppy mills breeders. Yes, the AKC treats puppy mill owners better than hobby breeders!
Not a word about the fact that the AKC prevents breed clubs from disqualifying puppy mill dogs from registration.
Not a word about the fact that the AKC mandates closed registries, and that the AKC often closes these registries with fewer than 50 dogs in them, guaranteeing inbreeding.
Not a word about the fact that the AKC will not allow breed clubs to require health checks as a condition of registration.
So nothing about the dogs. For the AKC the story is all about them. Right. I get it. It's a matter of life and death -- not a dog's life or death, but the AKC's.
And that's the part of the story that NBC missed.
You see, the AKC is already in God's waiting room.
The AKC is now registering half the dogs they did in 2004 and, as I have noted in the past, they are headed to oblivion by 2025.
The reason the AKC continues to vigorously court puppy mills and is pulling in more and more rare breeds with small gene pools is that their business model is in full system failure and they are desperate to keep numbers up.
But to no avail.
And it's not hard to understand why.
The insurance industry and research veterinarians have documented that AKC dogs are LESS healthy than similar sized cross-bred dogs.
Real working dog people have NEVER gone to AKC pretenders.
Pet owners are not interested in shows -- they are interested in health and temperament and perhaps a bit of status. The AKC gives ZERO points for health and ZERO points for temperament, and in this day and age, no one is giving anyone status points for owning an AKC dog!
The American Kennel Club has become a toxic brand.
If you are buying an AKC dog, you clearly do not know what you are doing; you are probably a pretender and a fantasist, and you are definitely a bad consumer who is helping fund canine misery.
Who wants to be associated with any of that? No one!
And so the AKC has the stench of death and soiled undergarments about it, like an old lady with a busted colostomy bag.
So what will the AKC's winning PR strategy be (::cough, cough::)? They will attack the messenger, noting that the Humane Society and the ASPCA face a RICO lawsuit for creating contrived litigation in furtherance of their direct mail campaigns. The ASPCA has already paid $9.2 million to settle their end of those charges. The HSUS cannot survive a court fight.
All true, and few have written more about it than I have.
But so what?
The Klan can point to the Nazis and say they at least did not do that, but does that make the Klan an organization you wish to be associated with? What does the direct mail and litigation shenanigans of HSUS and ASPCA have to do with the misery that the AKC has inflicted on dogs for the last 50 years?
Yes, that's right; what about the dogs?
When will we begin to talk about all of those AKC puppy mill registrations, the huge expense of that Madison Avenue office as compared to the budget for AKC kennel inspections, about the required inbreeding within the AKC's closed registries, and about the AKC's breed standards which celebrate deformity and defect?
When will we talk about the failure to award a single point for health or temperament at a dog show?
But I have no worries. I know how this battle is going to go. This is a war that we who truly love dogs will win with very few troops because, like Gideon with his pots of fire, we make a mighty noise and our small light will always defeat the darkness.
We win because we are not paid liars for hire in New York City.
We win because we put Dogs First.
.
10 comments:
The shame is it's not just dogs. Horses have individual breed registries but they all seem to have issues with form follows fashion. Quarter horses have HYPP, which causes muscle twitching in minor cases or collapse and death in severe cases. Really safe to be near or on a 1,200 - 1,500 lb. animal that just keels over. It's dominant and has a test. (The homozygous horses may be banned from registration, I haven't kept up with the rules.) The heterozygous horses bulk up from the muscle spasms and are more desirable for halter classes - the horse stands or is lead around, like a dog show. They also have a connective tissue disorder HERDA that caused the skin to split down the back and fall off the horse. Arabians have SCID, a recessive that can be tested for, that causes the foal to be born with no immune system. And there's juvenile epilepsy, cause unknown, but since the horses are being bred for "extreme" heads, maybe the brain has no room. A good working horse is a wonderful partner - I used Arabians (registered or not) for 50 mile endurance rides (zero drug under strict veterinary controls). A good horse is hard to find. I hope to be in a position to start a search for a nice herding breed dog in the next year, but am not sure how to find a sound and sane border collie or the like. Maybe a small, smooth bitch...
Woo Hoo! I must say I did feel a little sorry for the woman being interview. She got slammed and buried.
But it was great seeing the the AKC getting tagged in front of "Mr. & Mrs. TV America.
Wake up and smell the concrete, suburbia...
Although Quarter horses have had their share of genetic problems, at least they don't have a closed registry.
You forgot to mention Fresians, who not only have a closed registry, but also have decided to select approved breeding stock based on hair color. Any horse with white hairs can't be registered, and neither can their offspring. Consequently, the breed is on the verge of collapse. Many are born with horrible skull deformities, and "Fresian genetic aortic aneurisms" take the lives of many more.
Shelly- Go to the Border Collie boards:
http://www.bordercollie.org/boards/
Members will be happy to point you in the right direction for a working bred BC.
Dear Patrick,
I think you are a litle hard on that little old lady. Her problem was an accident and likely she's doing everything she can to clean herself up.
Donald McCaig
True Donald. Accidents happen. Cleaning up is good.
You are right that the AKC is not an accident, and while that little old lady will rush to clean herself up, the AKC just rolls in the stink. A big difference!
Patrick..your picture is likely posted in the lobby of the ivory tower labeled as the 'Club's Enemy Number One' right along side Jemmina's which is also labeled 'Club's Enemy Number One' (their counting skills are in deficit as is their membership)..good on you.
And the walls come tumbling down..
I enjoy your posts and agree with your point of view on many issues. But here you used one metaphore that I believe is unfair and unjust: comparing the 'stink' of the corrupt and greedy AKC to a poor woman who's colostomy bag has burst. It is unfair both to women, to old women, and to all those people who need a colostomy bag to save their lives! Young people too, both men and women need colostomies. I hope for your sake you'll never need one, but if you do - I hope you'll go on being active and enjoying life and loving you dogs as usual. Perhaps you would consider changing your metaphor? Many things stink, things that are not connected to a sick person - who is NOT responsible for his illness - UNLIKE the AKC who indeed are responsible for their actions and for their 'stink'.
Nonsense.
And I call nonsense as someone who spent 8 years as Director of Communications for the second largest senior citizens organization in the U.S, as someone whose grandmother was on a colostomy bag, and as the fellow who watched (with true admiration) Bill Clinton put his arm around a 94-year old woman whose colostomy bag had clearly come unstuck. He never broke stride or smile. My favorite story-moment with Clinton.
Your thinking here is weak. If I said "like a young tree in pale green leaf," that does not mean that every tree is young, that only trees are young, or that all leaves are green.
I am being specific, and from that specificity, you are leaping to the general to make a nonsense point because you are shocked by the power of the image which must be unfair somehow because... you know... women.. and age... and disability.
Go ahead and be shocked if you wish, but old age, women, death, and colostomy bags are not a theory for me; I happen to know what I am talking about and it is specific.
As for extreme old age, it is very sexist -- look up sex ratios for 90year olds and 100-year olds.
Colostomy bags and death also happen to have an age bias as well. Again, look it up.
You are shocked, but I am simply being real.
The AKC is well over 123 years old, and the image as I wrote it is perfect as it conveys all that I intended.
P
I am stuck waiting on someone, so looked up the stats: most colostomy patients are indeed old women. Not very shocking. >> http://www.o-wm.com/content/ostomy-statistics-the-64000-question
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