The Accredited Breeder Scheme will become law and all breeders “who are not part of the scheme” will be “unable to produce or sell puppies within the law.” TKC is the only Registry in England. To insure it remains without competition, all breeding stock must be registered with TKC. What a smashingly clever way to corner the market now and in the future. Imagine only auto one manufacturer…

TKC will dictate “age and number/frequency of litters.” Like it or not, breeders are forced to “permanently identify breeding stock by DNA profile, microchip, or tattoo” which as in the U.S., may also corner the DNA and microchip market for TKC.

But there’s more. The Kennel Club and the British Veterinary Association have become business partners the result of which is: breeding dogs must have eyes annually certified. Hips and elbows need be x-rayed only once and incredibly, twelve months of age will suffice even though hip dysplasia often becomes evident after 12 months, an indisputable fact your editor pointed out in column after column. The OFA finally changed requirements to 24 months and then, again as a result of constant badgering (by this writer), OFA announced it would also certify elbows. According to The Kennel Club’s website, there are already more than 30,000 results recorded each year. We can expect that number to increase expediently.
 

So, Brits are down to one car maker and they are required to take it to the dealerships for annual maintenance or repairs in order to legally breed dogs. No other choices. The new scheme isn't brand new, inside sources tell us this has been in the works for quite some time. More on that next edition. The fact is, The Kennel Club has seen this coming, whereas we in this country continue to make blinders part of our fashion wardrobe.

Breeders must provide each buyer with written advice on socialization, exercise, training, feeding, worming, shots, etc. That is admirable, but TKC doesn’t say how extensive the material must be and who will approve it. “The scheme Puppy Sales Wallet” (TKC approved or provided?) must also contain the registration certificate (apparently papers can not be withheld on pets) and a contract of sale. Now I can tell you that I have bought from some of the most respected and forward-thinking breeders in England and none of them did any of that!!! I presume they have changed in the last decade; all now have computers or access to writers and print shops.
 

Is this the same course the American Kennel Club is on? Lower level AKC Board Members, staff, and Delegates probably don’t know but one thing every dog breeder in America has recognized, AKC is increasingly about money and control but ironically, is in much the same position as TKC. Perhaps we’re not so far away from Boston Harbor as we thought.

I am trying to reach Meg Purnell Carpenter, Vice Chairman, TKC Breed Standards Committee with whom I’ve been close friends for well over twenty years. We did not discuss this when she last called as we have somewhat differing positions as she has risen to high position within The Kennel Club.

Meg is as good a dog person as I’ve ever known. An astute and popular judge, she is first of all, a master breeder who truly loves her dogs. She is however, British, and there is a peculiar gap between our two countries and cultures. In trips to England over the last two decades, I began to notice the government’s encroachment into the daily lives of British subjects - and the population’s increasingly calm generational acceptance. I now perceive an accelerated shift in America since the late 90s so we may be about to catch up to the U.K., politically speaking.
 I mention this because there is no other way to describe The Kennel Club’s shocking intrusion into the very core of the British breeder’s heritage. Their extraordinary breeding programs regularly populate those of America, and with good reason.

Here’s the frightening connection. England is not only America’s “mother country,” the United Kingdom is why there is a United States Of America. We left England to seek personal freedom. The Boston Tea Party was a significant turning point in American History. While less dramatic, government intrusion into our personal choices regarding what breed we can own, surgical sterilization, where we can have dogs, how many and at what cost (local, state, federal and/or AKC fees), well, it could at the very least, precipitate a dog owner’s rebellion!

As regards dog health, the Brits and the animal rights advocates do have a point. Breeders are impaired by the very nature of their respective breed standards. Breeders are literally caught in the middle. First, the breed standards spell out exactly what head to muzzle proportions must be in brachycephalic breeds; show breeders strive to meet those requirements. We are then condemned for having created physically compromised specimens.
Admittedly, show breeders do tend towards extremes of type. If a short nose is best, then a shorter nose would be better. Short leg-to-body ratio a breed characteristic? Okay then let’s make them look like caterpillars! Heavy bone? So what that it’s rhino-like and moves just as ponderously?

I have written on this before and my position is clear. We should not breed dogs that can’t see, run across the yard, or breed naturally. I am however, adamantly opposed to any type of government regulation that prevents us from doing so as long as there is public demand for purebred dogs. The free market should determine the lengths to which breeders can destroy a breed. If the AKC and TKC, along with the breed clubs, were to engage in true “breed education”, the demand would diminish correspondingly to the seriousness of the deformities.

Education and honesty would solve the entire problem within three generations. No good breeder wants to see a dog suffer and even those who care nothing about the animal would rather not sell a dog that could generate complaints and possibly civil action.

If Detroit built a car that required constant mechanical attention, no one would buy it. The difference is that the registries don’t actually build the dogs.  They hold patent to the design! The AKC and TKC patented blueprint forces show breeders to produce faulty products.  I might add that not all registries own the same patent so draw your own conclusions.

When the public falls in love with a dog breed, the manufacturer (breeders) will fill orders. The problem is that man’s love for a muscle car is not as strong as the human-pet bond even though the car can perform and a deformed dog can not. Perhaps the government should mandate that your grandmother could only purchase a Corvette or Bugatti? Make your own analogy, you get the point. For more information go to:

The Kennel Club Pedigreed Dog Health Breeder Scheme.

The economic crises will pass but special interests and corruption will continue. Pet ownership as we know it today is about to be GONE due to the political dominance of Animal Rights groups. Protecting and promoting Canine Health is admirable and noble but not at the expense of American freedom of choice. What Do You Think? We are fortunate to have been granted an exclusive interview with the Vice-Chair of The Kennel Club's Breed Standards Committee. Next edition...