REGISTRY, Breed & kennel Club NEWS

AKC and the Irish Red and White Setters

by Greg Williams

(History and Intro - amazing details, by Mark R.Atkins

IRWSA request of AKC to refuse to accept IRW pedigrees from FDSB and UKC:

This month, AKC board meeting minutes indicated it accepted the Irish Red and White Setter Association Inc. (IRWSA) as its parent organization and moved to install the breed into “Miscellaneous Class,” effective in June 2007. A more important note, however, was a request from IRWSA that the AKC no longer accepts Irish Red and White setter pedigrees from the FDSB or UKC.

Whether the request was prompted by IRWSA or AKC is unknown. What is clear, however, is that it seems to be an attempt by one or both organizations to avoid scrutiny of two policies that AKC has blatantly contradicted with its actions.

As Mark Atkins pointed out in his article, using the FDSB to disqualify Snowfire Copper and Snowfire Gold Dust by claiming the dogs are Irish setters causes a dilemma for AKC. With the Irish setter outcross dogs acceptable to and fully registered with AKC, Atkins states that canceling the two dogs in question under those conditions would ultimately corrupt AKC’s entire Irish setter registry.

AKC also disregarded a second policy, the acceptance of UKC three-generation pedigrees for AKC’s Foundation Stock Service (FSS). Attempts to follow the policy by submitting the appropriate UKC certificates were flatly denied.

These two policies and another concerning the guidelines for FSS acceptance have been key questions that AKC and IRWSA have not been able to defend. So, it appears that AKC under the cloak of the IRWSA’s request can cancel the Irish Red and White setter pedigrees from the FDSB and cherry-pick the breed out of UKC’s registry. By doing so, AKC will try to duck the issues by amending those policies after the fact. It clearly shows to what lengths these two organizations will go to strong-arm Snowfire owners and breeders, but even more importantly, how weak their arguments are.

According to the August board meeting minutes, AKC’s management will review the request and bring it back to its October board meeting. Will AKC and IRWSA succeed in their strategy? Probably. Will they do it behind the backs of the dog public? Not today.

Greg Williams is an IRW owner of one of the progeny of the dogs that was cancelled. He is a hunter and a field trialer. Living in Signal Mountain, Tennessee, he has been a writer in one form or another for many years.

"My dog, Tipper, is registered with UKC and until recently was an FSS certificate holder."

________________________________________ Handy links:

Introduction and History:

AKC and The Irish Red and White Setters, An Old Breed Whose History and Future is in Jeopardy by Mark Atkins.

AKC Disregards Policies in Controversial Recognition Procedure of Irish Red and White Setters

AKC and the IRWSA Parent Club's website language that owners and breeders say is defamatory and misleading.

Another Viewpoint regarding the Irish Red and White Setters by Chris James

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