REGISTRY,
Breed & kennel Club NEWS
AKC JUDGES FEES (TAX)
The American Kennel Club again seeks to impose an annual judging fee
on judges, or as some call it, an AKC Judges tax. Exhibitors,
breeders, dog show vendors; this affects you!
Exhibitors, put your ears up. Judges work for the clubs, not AKC.
AKC already collects fees from those clubs and in addition, every
time you enter a dog, there’s the recording fee buried in the entry
fee. Now, when entries are down, when most clubs are overextended
and the sport is struggling, it’s about to get worse for you, the
one person who makes dog shows possible.
Barbara J. Andrews,
TheDogPress
05|28|10 -
We forestalled the $25 Activity Fee (1) but what sounds like a small
fee now “just to help AKC cover some of the expenses of the judging
department” will become a 500 pound gorilla if we let it in the room.
Since 2004, entry
fees have gone up over $3 per dog, per entry due to steady
increases in the AKC Event Fees. (2) If the AKC judges
fee/tax passes, judges will have to increase their fees, which for
many new judges, doesn’t even cover their costs to get to the
show! Even multi-group and all-breed judges will have to pass the
AKC tax on to the clubs because based on the number of breeds
they judge, their AKC tax will run into the $thousands! Of course clubs
will pass extra judging costs on to every person who participates in
an AKC dog show. It’s Economics 101 and over the last year, you’ve
learned how “the economy” works.
Here’s the deal. If
exhibitors and kennel clubs fail to back up the judges, you will pay
your share of an estimated $102,000 per year AKC tax. It
is an incremental fee, beginning next year. Click for instant info
ii AKC's Judging Fee rationale from the Board Minutes, minus any mention of fees amount. Depending
on whether you won or lost last weekend, you may say “serves ‘em
right” but are you willing to absorb yet another AKC fee on showing
your dog?
|
Surely you realize how powerful YOU are? You are the person
who buys a purebred dog, registers it, nurtures and trains
it, pays fees to show it, to make your dog part of the glitz
and glamour that attracts the audience that enables the TV
shows to pay AKC for broadcast rights so the producers can
get advertising from dog food companies (and HSUS) and
everyone makes money but you. Got it? |
There are also legal
issues and while we can be sure AKC has the best
legal advice, it could be the courts that decide whether judges must
pay the American Kennel Club $hundreds to $thousands per year for
the privilege of judging dogs. Of course, AKC would just pass those
legal costs on to us. You know, the breeders who are the sole
support of the entire system! Without YOU, there would be no
credibility in dog shows or having an AKC registered dog; there
would be only puppy mill produce.
You buy photos,
advertise the dog in show mags, host the parties, donate your time
to the kennel and breed club, and you will probably breed the dog and
thus, sustain the system that profits you nothing!
You do it
because you love dogs and the social activity involved in showing
them. Judges do it because they love the sport. AKC does it for
money and that’s okay but it is you who owns and breeds the dog that
supports the AKC. Now that you understand it is YOU that controls
the sport, what are you going to do with that knowledge?
The Dog Press will
interview the
Senior Conformation Judges Association (SCJA),
American Dog Show Judges Association (ADSJ), and the
Dog Judges Association Of America (DJAA), all of which prevented
AKC from imposing the judges’ fees five years ago. But make no
mistake, this affects YOU and we need your input now that you see
this isn’t “just about the judges.” Call (800) 776-0754 or email
editor@TheDogPress.com
According to Lt.
Col. Wallace H. Pede, CEO of the SCJA, the AKC Board has agreed to
coordinate with the national judges groups. He is pleased that AKC
is seeking the combined experience of those who “have years and
years of judging experience” and he doesn’t hesitate to point
out “all that experience - at no cost to the American Kennel
Club. We are happy that the AKC Board has taken a second look and
opened the issue for further consideration.”
The Colonel thinks
there “are the many other ways that money can be saved, from high
salaries paid and the number of field reps … to a move out of New
York City.” He also stipulates that the SCJA would not consider
“any annual fee for the provisional judges who, in addition to
all of their other expenses, don’t even make travel expenses for a
show.” The SCJA welcomes your input - email
scja@cox.net.
In the next edition,
The Dog Press will present YOUR comments on AKC judges’ fees. One
judge has already called and stated the obvious. “We are not
licensed by AKC. They have made it clear that we are only
“approved” to judge. It is expensive enough to go through the
process for even a few breeds so it smacks of extortion to be told
that we have to keep paying AKC in order to do what it already said
we could do. Doctors can join various professional groups but they
don’t have to pay them off in order to practice their profession.”
So keep it succinct
but please call (800) 776-0754 any weekday 9 to 5 PM EST or email
your quotable or what your club is doing to put out the fire to
editor@TheDogPress.com
Related
links:
#1 - $25
per year per dog Annual Activity Fee on AKC Exhibitors
http://www.thedogpress.com/ClubNews/AKC/0901-News_BJA.asp
#2 - 700%
increase in AKC Event Recording Fee in just 50 years
http://www.thedogpress.com/Editorials/0810-AKC-Economics.asp
ii
AKC's Judging Fee rationale
Senior Judges "strongly oppose" AKC's 2005 annual judges fee,
"licensing fee"
http://www.thedogpress.com/Editorials/Judges-Fees-10073_Andrews.asp
http://www.thedogpress.com/ClubNews/AKC/10052-AKC-Judges-Fees_Andrews.asp
