Is The Kennel Club an Underground Cult?
Published on December 31, 2008 by Ryan O'Meara · No CommentsNormally I wouldn’t need to ask such a bizarre question. But having just read the annual address from Kennel Club chairman Ronnie Irving I feel compelled to re-examine whether the Kennel Club is a simple, albeit powerful, private member’s club, run for the benefit of its members – enthusiasts of pedigree dogs – or if it has moved in to the territory of the Scientologists, Stonecutters or the Freemasons.
Why?
Well here’s how Mr Irving opens his address:
In this column in January 2008 I started off the year by predicting “greater interference from the outside world“
Erm, what?
“Greater interference from the outside world” – well that answers at least one of my questions, does the Kennel Club have independent PR advice? Doesn’t look like it!
When I read comments like this it makes me cringe, genuinely. It makes me take a deep intake of breath and wince. I read stuff like that and I think of all the people I know – let’s call them ‘people from the outside world’ or another description that tends to fit them ‘normal people’ and I always hope, hope, hope that they never think of me as one of those ‘doggy people’ who sees ‘normal’ people as the ‘outside world’.
In the same way I often shy away from telling people I’m involved in animal welfare for fear of being tarred with the ‘animal rights extremist’ brush, I also freely admit that I live in fear of being seen as one of those folks who are so invested in their dog hobby that they see normal people as ‘the outside world’. Scares me to death so it does.
Anyway, Mr Irving is right – the ‘outside world’ got a full view in to the organised world of dogdom this year. And yes, now they want to ‘interfere’. If by interfere he means they are so outraged at the abuse and shocking state of some of our beloved canine friends they now want their voices to be heard as they lend their support to those who are fighting to bring an end to these misdeeds.
Anyway, this might surprise you – but his ‘interference from the outside world’ quote is not even the most cringeworthy. No. He’s beat it. Check this out:
“my optimism about this group is greater than it is about some of the loudest of the media, the politicians and the so-called do-gooders, who seem to know the answers are all simple and at times seem to act a bit like terrorists lobbing hand grenades in to a casualty hopsital”
Wow! Just wow!
‘Do gooders’ – if by do-gooder he means people who, how shall I put this, want to do good, then I’d love to count myself as one.
‘Terrorists’ – this from the organisation that threw its teddy out of the pram because it claimed it was linked to the Nazi eugenics movement in the documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed – but is happy to use the word terrorist to describe the law makers, the media and the ‘do gooders’ who want to try and make things better for dogs.
Here’s some home truths:
Those ‘outsiders’ those ‘do gooders’ these are the people who dogs need on their side.
In 2008 the Kennel Club has been lead by someone who has overseen the greatest demise in the organisation’s 100 plus year existence. A year which has seen its flagship dog show removed from TV, has lost the support of the major animal welfare and veterinary charities in the UK, has had more negative press than Garry Glitter, has lost its major commercial sponsor and has shown itself to be utterly incompetent in dealing with any of these problems from a public relations perspective. And to finish with a flourish he goes on to slam the ‘do gooders’ likens animal welfare campaigners to terrorists and describes his own organisation as being like a ‘casualty hospital’ all from the virtual bunker looking out at the ‘outside world’. I really didn’t think it could get much worse for the Kennel Club but there you go, just shows you what a hand grenade wielding terrorist knows about anything doesn’t it!
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Tags: kennel club
"Lobbing grenades into a casualty hospitalt" – is he talking about me? He is right about the casualty hospital however. With the KC's preferred breeding practices persisting all they are doing is producing a long line of crocks, wrecks and genetically compromised animals so "casualty hospital" sums them up quite well.
I was appalled by the BBC doco which depicted a very skewed picture of the purebred world, by showing 1 dog with problems, and insinuating all dogs of the breed had those problems. Perhaps what Mr. Irvine said was not terriblly tactful under the circumstances,but it is difficult to refute lies, half truths and innuendoes,. The program was touted as being 100% correct, when it had holes in it so large you could have driven a tank through them. What purebred dogs need is a doco on the true story, such as the many thousands of pounds Cavalier breeders have donated to trying to discover more about Syringomyelia, and the testing and research which has reduced the incidence of MVD in the breed.
The originators of the doco one would suppose, must be aligned with the more radical animal rights groups, who wish to curtail pet ownership. I viewing the membership list of them would make interesting reading.
Maybe it's time for the kennel club to hire a publicist, or make a movie about the many thousands of purebred dogs who live healthy lives and die of old age. And they are in the majority
They may well be in the majority but because of the poor levels of health recording done by breeders we will never know for certain. But a significant number suffer – full stop. To those J Logan do you say "Go hang?". I believe the KC has got themselves a publicist – I know for a fact the cavalier Cavalier breeders have deployed one. There would never have been any need for such expenditure had the KC taken the health issues attached to their preferred and yet highly damaging breeding practices seriously decades ago.
You suppose incorrectly J Logan about the alignment of the film makers. You mention CKCS so perhaps you are one of their sorority – a group of people in my experience who are not nuanced enough to distinguish between animal welfare issues and animal rights. Nor are they very good at following good breeding protocols. They are very adept however at cherry picking their science. If they had followed the advice about breeding to eliminate Sm and MVD there would be no story for a film crew to tell. Stop blaming the messengers and put your energies into helping your breed. I feel sorry for you because clearly in Ronnie Irving you have not got any strong leadership to follow. But that is your problem not mine.
Oh come on, many of us know that the KC is based on Freemasonary, this is hardly news. Most of the top judges and officers of the KC are members of Connaught Lodge.
Lol at the Royston Vasey picture but shocked at what Mr Irving writes:
“my optimism about this group is greater than it is about some of the loudest of the media, the politicians and the so-called do-gooders, who seem to know the answers are all simple and at times seem to act a bit like terrorists lobbing hand grenades in to a casualty hopsital”
Pardon the pun, but talk about 'biting the hand that feeds them', surely as they the Kennel Club are the secretariat for, and are pushing through with the rest of the Dangerous Dogs Act Study Group backing for the bizarre and frankly draconian Dog Control Bill 2008, they act like Machiavelli on the one hand when it suits them, but are attacking politicians when it does not! Do they include those animal charities that are part of the DDASG as 'do-gooders' or are they exempt?
CONTINUED FROM ABOVE:
What a mad annual address, 'the outside world', who is in it, those who are not allowed in the dining room or boardroom at Clarges Street perhaps? I used to have a lot of respect for the Kennel Club but this address shows just how out of touch they are and realise that they are living in 2009 not 1909!
Where did this come from:
'terrorists lobbing hand grenades in to a casualty hopsital'
Appalling!
It's actually not my breed but I am perspicacious enough to see a stitch up job when I see one. You might like to tell us how breeders can avoid pups with Syringomyelia, as no one seems quite sure how to do this? Although I see that Cavalier breeders have actually reduced the incidence of Syringmyelia, despite numbers overall increasing.
And the messengers deserve and should accept blame for showing only one side of the story.
Why do Cavalier people love to spout the fact that other breeds suffer from SM too? It is as if they wish suffering on other animals. It is absolutely no comfort to the suffering dogs. The film never said that SM was exclusive to Cavaliers. It simply portrayed Cavaliers as an illustration. A very powerful one at that. Your tactic of dismissing the extent, impact and severity of SM in Cavaliers is one I am well used to. But no matter what your protest J Logan the fact is this – cavalier breeders have by and large been extremely cavalier with the integrity of their breeding protocols and they deserved to be highlighted in the way that they were in PDE. I suggest they better get their house in order PDQ or my bet is they will feature strongly in the PDE follow up. And make no bones about it – pedigree dog breed people – the contect of PDE the next installment – is entirely – entirely down to you.
Hey folks, we need to start getting very very worried about the Kennel Club and its supporters, take for example these comments:
'terrorists lobbying grenades into casualty hospitals'
'big enough to drive a tank through'
I am an ordinary dog owner and feel that to be tarred as animal rights because I support PDE is really bang out of order. All Mr Irvine is doing isdalienating even more general dog owners from having any faith at all in the exclusive gentlemans club that is the Kennel Club. With all the military talk, perhaps the Kennel Club is preapring to stage a coup so it can change the rules to suit itself? To me they appeare to be tory types anyway?
Not perspicacious enough however to understand how cav breeders can avoid breeding dogs with SM. MRI ALL your breeding stock and only use dams and sires that show NO sign of the Chiari Malformation. And remember the film highlighted the fact that some so called eminent breeders refuse to MRI scan their dogs. Shameful. Even that will not safeguard against SM, however it is the best that can be done until further genetic research has been completed.
There is only one stitch up job being perpetrated here and that is the stitch up of the dogs themselves – breeders knowingly, yes knowingly persisting in breeding dogs that will be destined for a life of pain and discomfort. And the stitch up of all the unwitting pet owners who have up until recently taken what breeders have spun them as "truth". Those are the stitch up jobs that were you really concerned about animal welfare would absorb you.
Clearly from Mr Irving's missive here he is well put out by the "outside interference" as clearly are you. There is a very simple solution to dealing with this interference – do all the right things by your dogs instead of chasing rosettes. Get your animal welfare priorities right. Make the KC health centric instead of show centric. And I can assure you the irritating outside interference will wane.
It' has nothing to do with me, and the result of the documentary, according to the public I speak to, is that they will now chose a designer dog in preference to a purebred. . You say that breeders are not interested in improving health . Cavalier websites do not support what you say, but if the websites are glossing over huge problems, and breeders are breeding for looks, not health, that is the wisest course for the publc. I would have read that the incidence of syringomyelia is dropping on a website probably a cavalier one, but if is untrue, I accept that. Maybe breeding should cease anyhow.
J Logan wrote “Dogs showing no signs of the chiari malformation have producted pups with syringomylelia.”
If indeed this is true then could you please inform the researchers as to which these dogs were? I’m sure they would love to study offspring from Cavaliers without CM. As it currently is they are having a very hard time finding any. Did you check the source of this information to ensure the truth of it?
You may have been mislead, any you have stated an interest in finding out more about SM. This is the latest (Nov) talk by Guy Rouleau.
http://hosted.mediasite.com/hosted5/Viewer/?peid=…
Notice this about the Cavalier breed at about 19:39 in. “we started wondering, are there Chiari Malformation negative dogs? And I think, you know, the answer is not out yet, but it looks like probably not."
cont.
This is the remainder of his statement from that talk:
"Perhaps, and we’re beginning to think that the Chiari Malformation phenotype may in fact be part of what was selected for when the dog breed was created. So you create a breed of dogs to have a certain look and the ones that win in the dog shows have a certain look, and if that look is Chiari, or whatever leads to Chiari, you are going to with a breed that’s got all Chiari.”
I too did my own research after PDE rather hoping to find out, as an owner of two Cavaliers, that it was greatly exaggerated. I found that it was not.
This wouldn't stop me from owning another Cavalier, but I would be very careful from whom I bought one. Perhaps scanning and following the breeding protocols are not a guarantee of a healthy puppy, but it is the best way to go based on research to date. At the very least, those breeders who are scanning and following the breeding procols know that they are doing everything they can for the present.
As for Cavalier websites, I rather agree with a post by Rod Russel on the Cavalier Talk site:
"If you want nothing but positive "spins" about Cavaliers, read most breeder websites. If you want to find out why your Cavalier may not be acting well, go to http://www.cavalierhealth.org/
Good advice, Rod.
Genius informs us:
'Oh come on, many of us know that the KC is based on Freemasonary, this is hardly news. Most of the top judges and officers of the KC are members of Connaught Lodge. '
Is the Connaught Lodge not the 'establishment' one where all the toffs hang out anyway, the KC is part of the establishment regardless of whether they are masons or the private, class riddled club they have always been?
Having just read all these posts I am surprised that no one latched on to the fact that 'show' dogs must be registered with the KC before they will be accepted into a show – which is licencsed by the KC. Now, if the KC were to introduce a policy that no progeny of unscanned parents could be registerd, and neither would progeny from father/daughter, mother/son, brother/sister matings be accepted, surely it stands to reason that there would soon be a decline in this practice as most breeders (in MY humble OPINION) are only in it for the money. What would be the point in producing 'show' litters they could not sell as 'show' dogs?? In my experience when it hurts most (i.e. in the pocket) then something is usually done.