 In
2006 the AKC registered over 870,191 dogs. The basic fee to register
a dog with the AKC in 2006 was $15.00. The AKC easily realized profits
in excess of $13,052,865.00 for basic registration fees. As you
can see, registering dogs is big business and kennel clubs have
come a long way since their profits were donated to charity.
(www.nppmwatch.com/AKC.html)
The Growth of the Puppy Mill....
Beginning in the 1950s, breeding "AKC dogs" for sale to a seemingly
insatiable public became a way for hobbyists to earn extra money,
and for kennel owners to earn a living. The "doggie in the window"
became a commodity, mass-produced in a puppy mill and sold to a
broker and then to a pet store.... The AKC earned money each step
of the way--with registration of the litter by the breeder, from
transfer slips filled out whenever the puppies passed through middlemen,
and when the proud new owner registered his or her pup. The AKC
grew as the number of dogs grew, regardless of their quality.
After extensive lobbying by the Humane Society, in 1970 puppy mills
and brokers were brought under the jurisdiction of the federal Animal
Welfare Act, which authorized the U.S. Department of Agriculture
to license and inspect dealers, exhibitors, transporters, and researchers
dealing with animals "not raised for food or fiber." But this step
brought little change.
Robert Baker, an investigator for the Humane Society, says, "For
the past twenty years the USDA hasn't been enforcing its regulations,
and the AKC hasn't taken any action because it profits from the
sale of half a million dogs a year through pet stores. The AKC charter
says it has authority to regulate breeders to preserve the health
and welfare of purebred dogs, but
it does nothing." In the winter of 1980-1981
Baker conducted an investigation of 294 commercial breeders in the
Midwest, out of 3,886 breeders and brokers licensed by the USDA,
and documented unsanitary, inhumane
practices by nearly all of them.
(The Atlantic, March 1990)
The High Volume Breeder Committee successfully convinced the fancy
that puppy mills had evolved into wonderful high-tech breeding facilities
with animal husbandry methods we could well adopt in our own "breeding
programs." Even as that concept was being promoted, AKC's next marketing
step was prepared. When people took issue with the HVB committee
findings, AKC sold us another bill of goods ... "puppy mills, (High
Volume Breeders) need to be educated, taught a better way." So HVB
were not only crammed down our throats, we accepted the taste.
When AKC revamped its website
to accommodate puppy mill advertising,
we did not shove the plate away because we were told AKC couldn't
"not" accept ads from "them" any more than AKC could deny them registration.
Being so insulated from the truth, we accepted that and more. We
now have just seen AKC, being a "private club" can and does do anything
it wants to!...
So now the ultimate double-cross. AKC has entered into a "new contractual
relationship" with the Petland chain....
(www.thedogpress.com/Columns/Editorials/06_Sold.Out.By.AKC_09.asp)
Frustrated by federal inaction, a state representative in Kansas,
Ginger Barr, authored legislation in 1987 to regulate the puppy
mills in her state through inspection and licensing. "I was raised
to think of AKC papers like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval,"
Barr says, "but they wouldn't help us. They're the largest registry
in the world, but they won't give us the names of breeders in Kansas."
Stern says that providing the list would amount to an invasion of
privacy....
It has a long [way] to go. In 1987 a reporter for Parade, Michael
Satchell, asked William F. Stifel, then the president of the AKC,
whether the AKC would register a blind, deaf, three-legged purebred
pup with hip dysplasia and green fur. According to Parade, Stifel
said, "We would register the dog. AKC unfor[tu]nately does not mean
quality." ....
... The Humane Society of the United States calculates that the
roughly 500,000 dogs (representing 100,000 litters) sold each year
by pet stores come almost exclusively from puppy mills. By the most
conservative estimate these dogs make up 20 percent of those the
AKC registered in 1988....
Commercial breeding-- including that practiced by backyard hobbyists--
is the ugly underbelly of the purebred-dog world. "The unrestricted
breeding of dogs has produced a situation in which four-and-a-half
million unwanted animals are put to death each year," says Guy Hodge,
the director of data and information at the Humane Society.
(The Atlantic, March 1990. Emphasis added.)
AKC Statement on Relationships with High Volume Kennels
The following is from the desk of AKC President Al Cheauré.
One of the AKC Board of Directors' priorities for 2001 is to evaluate
the relationship of AKC with commercial breeders in ensuring the
welfare of purebred dogs. This priority was assigned to the Public
Relations/Public Affairs Committee of the Board. At the August 2001
Board Meeting, the Public Relations/Public Affairs Committee recommended
that the Board form an AKC Board and Delegate Committee to assess
the current status of high volume kennels with regards to meeting
AKC requirements and standards. Such committee was approved and
committee members appointed.
The AKC staff has been tasked to support this Board initiative by
delivering the AKC message to high volume kennel breeders regarding
AKC's Care & Conditions Policy, Inspections Requirements, and AKC's
use of DNA as a parentage verification tool. The first such presentation
was scheduled to be made by AKC President, Al Cheauré, and Vice-President,
Robert Slay, at a breeder's association meeting in Missouri on September
22, 2001 sponsored by the Hunte Corporation of Goodman, Mo. Since
the Board/Delegate Committee will start its deliberations soon,
it is appropriate to postpone the AKC presentations to high volume
kennels until the committee has had an opportunity to advance its
work.
(Web archive of www.akc.org/news/highvolkennels.cfm, from 2002)
After three weeks of closed-door negotiations over the $171 billion
farm bill, lobbyists for agribusiness and the poor are claiming
victory, while environmentalists are complaining....
Some policies debated in the bill have little to do with farming.
One hot question this year is how often dog breeders will be allowed
to produce litters of pups.
The Senate bill's "puppy protection"
provision would crack down on excessive breeding of dogs in commercial
"puppy mills." It is fiercely defended
by the Humane Society and fiercely
opposed by the American Kennel Club out
of fear it would extend to their breeders.
The Kennel Club's Web site urges members to "keep the pressure on"
lawmakers, as the farm bill could be complete the week of April
9.
(New York Times, March 24, 2002)
Kennel Club is wrong
An April 6 World-Herald editorial rightly criticized the abuse of
dogs at "puppy mills," but it cast some doubt on the particulars
of legislation pending in Congress to address the problem. In reality,
the American Kennel Club
- which opposes the reforms, perhaps because of the registration
fees it secures from puppy-mill operators - has spread
gross misinformation about the legislation
pending before a House-Senate conference committee.
The legislation targets two problems common to large-scale puppy
mills: the lack of human attention provided to dogs and the relentless
overbreeding of females. It seeks to stop excessive breeding and
give some relief to females forced to produce litters every six
months.
The AKC has falsely claimed that the legislation would result in
hobby breeders' being subjected to government regulation. And the
legislation would not increase the number of commercial dog breeders
who will be inspected by USDA personnel. The legislation simply
adds the two new humane standards to the existing inspections program,
which has proved to be too weak to address the needs of dogs bred
and sold for commercial pet trade.
Wayne Pacelle, Washington, D.C.
Senior vice president, Humane Society of the United States
(Omaha World Herald (Nebraska), April 19, 2002)
Ms. Laurans:... Recently I've
become aware of some significant changes that have happened in terms
of AKC's dealing with commercial breeders. There may be reason and
rationale for those changes, but I am concerned that we, as Delegates
and representatives of our clubs, were not aware that they were
happening before they did and the reason and rationale for them.
I will give you a couple of examples:
AKC giving money to be a platinum sponsor of the Missouri Pet Breeders
Association, an organization founded by commercial breeders in that
state to promote their puppy mills and the like, the same organization
that boycotted the AKC over the frequently used sire DNA requirement.
They could have had a booth, they could have had an ad. They did
not need to be a platinum $3,000 sponsor. And if they did, we needed
to know that perhaps ahead of time.
Secondly, AKC taking out a fullpage back cover ad in The Kennel
Spotlight, a publication for commercial kennels which is published
by Bob Hughes, a leading dog auctioneer through his Southwest Auction
and one of the former owners of Dobey Tri-Kennels, which had its
U.S. Department of Agriculture Dealer permit revoked and which was
subsequently purchased by the Hunte Corporation.
Now, maybe there are reasons for things like this and for certain
high volume breeders being offered the fact that they can register
their dogs without paying a late fee. But if there is, we need to
understand that first, not be shocked when we are called by members
of our clubs and not be shocked by actions that we think are not
necessarily in keeping with what we have come to believe the American
Kennel Club stands for.
(Quarterly Meeting Of The Delegates of The American Kennel Club,
March 14, 2006. Emphasis added.)
Still, [Australian Shepherd] fanciers cherish their dog's herding
instinct so much they recently voted 2-1 not to try for American
Kennel Club recognition. Once a breed begins being bred for appearance
-- and AKC show champions are judged on how they look, not on how
they perform -- its original purpose often becomes obscured.
Lost Favor With Hunters
For instance, the Lassie-type collie has a lovely coat and a long
elegant nose, but sheep ranchers don't use it anymore -- the herding
instinct has been neglected. The Irish setter and the cocker spaniel,
both once used for sport, lost favor with hunters as they gained
favor with the public.
"You saw what happened to the Irish setter," notes Sylmar resident
Pamela McCollum, president of the Australian shepherd club of Southern
California. "It's just a pretty dog now. We really don't want to
lose what our dogs have."
(Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1986)
Last month, the American Kennel Club, the politburo of American
dog breeding, decided to turn the world's smartest dog, the border
collie, into a moron. Actually, it voted 11-1 to begin proceedings
to turn it into a show dog, which will amount to the same thing.
A dog bred for 200 years exclusively for smarts will now be bred
for looks. Its tail, its coat, its ears, its bite, its size will
have to be just so. That its brains will likely turn to mush is
of no consequence.
What is the border collie? A breed developed in the border country
between England and Scotland for one thing only: its ability to
herd sheep....
It is a creature of uncanny intelligence and a jaw-dropping capacity
to communicate with humans, able to herd 300 sheep at a time at
a distance of a mile and half from its shepherd. It is, testifies
Baxter Black (NPR's "cowboy poet, philosopher and former large-animal
veterinarian"), "one of the greatest genetic creations on the face
of the Earth."
Now it faces genetic ruin.
When bred for looks, great swathes of the border collie population,
which comes in all shapes and sizes, will be condemned to genetic
oblivion.
It would be nice to breed for beauty and brains, but history and
genetics teach that the confluence of the two is as rare in dogs
as it is in humans. Inbreeding in the pursuit of man-made standards
of beauty has reduced other breeds to ruin: In the 1950s, writes
Mark Derr in the Atlantic Monthly, show
people turned the German shepherd into a weak-hipped animal with
a foul temper and bizarre downward-sloping hindquarters. The cocker
spaniel lost its ability to hunt. The bulldog and the Boston terrier
have been given such exaggerated heads that the females regularly
need C-sections to give birth. As for the AKC's Irish setters, says
veterinarian Michael W. Fox, "they're so dumb they get lost on the
end of their leash."
The genetics behind such sad stories is straightforward. "In genetics,
selection for one trait usually comes at the expense of another,"
explains Jasper Rine, professor of genetics and former director
of the Human Genome Center at the Lawrence Berkeley Labs. "The notion
that one could achieve a standard conformation for Border Collies
and maintain their working qualities is simply foolish." Which is
why the border collie people are prepared to sue to keep the AKC's
snout from under their tent.
(Washington Post, July 15, 1994)
HEADLINE: The politics of dogs; criticism
of policies of American Kennel Club....
Despite its wealth and power, the AKC has come under fire from
an increasing number of critics who charge that it has done
purebred dogs sometimes irreparable harm....
(The Atlantic, March 1990)
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