The AKC--in bed with pet shop?

I just read something very disturbing on a different pet message board. According to the post, "Today at the delegates meeting, the AKC announced that the Board has signed a contract with Petland Discount stores to educate
store employees about the importance of AKC registration. The plan is that the store will charge the AKC registration fee at the time of sale and register the puppy on line. My understanding is that the Board voted 12 to 1 to enter into this contract."

I find this horrible. The AKC should not be dealing with a pet store or encouraging them to register puppy mill dogs with them! To do so gives puppy mills a facade of legitimacy and makes a mockery of the AKC's breed standards . . . We all know that puppy millers pay scant attention to the conformation and temperament of their animals, in addition to keeping them in miserable conditions. The AKC should be DENYING puppy millers registrations, not encouraging them to register poorly bred animals! I see this as nothing more than an attempt to make a quick buck off of the registration fees. :mad:

I am praying that this is not true, but the timing does fit in exactly with the AKC delegates' quarterly meetings . . . They occur around the middle of the month on a Tuesday. Today is Wednesday, which would be the day after their meeting. (The original post said the meeting was "today" . . .) They do meet quarterly in September.

We will know for sure when the AKC posts the minutes of its meeting! Here is the minutes page, in case anyone wants to keep an eye on it:

http://www.akc.org/about/delegate_meeting_minutes.cfm

I agree with you that it is disturbing. But when you think about it, the big problem here is that AKC puppies are sold in pet stores, not that they can be registered online there. Assuming that AKC (in general) is more a force against puppy milling than for it (and I agree it is a close call, but I'd have to give the edge to the AKC, overall), getting more money from people who buy AKC dogs at pet stores is sort of like getting the cigarette companies to pay for those anti-smoking ads. It is getting in bed with the devil, but maybe defensible.

After all, I WANT all those people who buy puppies from PetLand to come to my obedience class, and get involved in AKC events and learn about their breed standard. That is the best way to insure that they will never again be PetLand customers.

There's been a HUGE uproar over this on some email lists that I'm following.

The short form of it is that:
1) AKC directors voted in favor of the Petland contract 12-1
2) This was presented to the delegates who near unanimously rejected it. At which point the AKC started claiming a $10 MILLION loss on Events and offering the choice of accepting the contract or having nearly all associated fees raised.

Petland is primarily supplied by Hunte Corp. which sold around 85,000 pups in 2002 and recently got a $900,000 grant from the USDA to expand their facilities.

The breeder/show community is absolutely up in arms over this.

Gee whiz.. Cider is a petland dog. She sure is a mill dog.
Darn, could have been akc registered :yuck:

As Hunte Corporation is a large supplier of Petland's it would stand to reason that the AKC would want to work together to register the dogs. Most dogs we've received third party from Hunte Corp can all be registered AKC as both parents AKC numbers show on the paperwork. Sad to think that this will become common practice. Perhaps it would be money better spent to inspect those "breeders" with AKC registered dogs who are breeding on behalf of the Hunte Corp.. instead of training Petland staff to be AKC educated. hmm I may have gone :offtopic: on my thoughts. Sorry.