Kennel Club’s Dubious PR Exploits Exposed
Posted By Ryan O'Meara Date: 19/08 Posted Under: Animal Charities, Animal Welfare, Pet IndustryToday, August 19th, the news agenda, the mainstream news agenda that is has been filled with news of a controverisal documentary being aired by BBC One, Pedigree Dogs Exposed.
The documentary has captured the attention of the national media, mainly because there is buzz abound that the documentary is damning, the BBC itself is seriously considering whether or not to continue broadcasting Crufts dog show after their two year deal expires.
The media has been covering the issue of ill dogs, suffering and in pain as a direct result of poor dog breeding practices and the Kennel Club have been putting the legwork in in an attempt to put their side of the story across.
In fact the Kennel Club’s PR offensive started before the documentary had been seen by anyone. A preemptive press release was published on the Kennel Club website explaining their position that they felt the documentary was biased - please recall, nobody had seen the documentary at this stage - and that it had preconceived ideas about the Kennel Club and the state of pedigree dog health.
The press release was later emboldened and a prominent link was placed to a web address. This one:
The Kennel Club hits back - www.doggenetichealth.org
Throughout the day, the KC’s PR machine has been in overdrive. Not so much preemptive this time, more defensive.
The RSPCA’s chief vet Mark Evans set the ball rolling in this morning’s press and media when he stated that Crufts dog show was ‘a parade of mutants’.
The RSPCA themselves sought to clarify, through this website, that Mark’s ‘mutants’ comment was his own view and not neccessarily the view of the RSPCA. But nevertheless, the RSPCA and the KC are clearly on opposite sides of the fence on this particular issue. The RSPCA told us:
The ‘parade of mutants’ comment is Mark’s personal view. The RSPCA is, however, concerned about the unacceptably high levels of disability, deformity and disease affecting pedigree dogs - and this includes animals entered into ‘best of breed’ classes in dog shows like Crufts.
We believe dog shows that are judged only according to breed standards encourage selective breeding for appearance and the intensive breeding of closely related dogs.
The RSPCA isn’t against all dog shows - in fact we want to help ensure a positive future for the pedigree dog by working with everyone involved. We would like to see the emphasis shifted away from appearance, so that health, welfare and temperament are considered first and foremost.
Dog shows have the potential to be incredibly beneficial in terms of promoting dog welfare and are also ideal opportunities for the RSPCA to meet dog owners and breeders, let people know about our work and help spread animal welfare messages about responsible pet ownership.
The UK’s largest and most prominent animal welfare charity has openly criticised the UK’s largest breed registry. Are they now at loggerheads?
Well let us return to the issue of the Kennel Club’s PR offensive, the website www.doggenetichealth.org. According to domain records, www.doggenetichealth.org was originally registered and owned by:
Registrant Organization:Publitek New Media Ltd
Since the initially publication of our story, Publitek New Media Ltd have updated the ownership records of the domain name which now shows the registered owner as:
Registrant Name:Ronnie Irving
Registrant Organization:The Kennel Club
Registrant Street1:1-5 Clarges Street
Registrant Street2:Piccadilly
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:London
Now it’s certainly no sin for the Kennel Club to be actively employing a preemptive and reactive PR strategy at this difficult time, it makes sense actually - especially when the Kennel Club’s own chairman may have dropped a bit of a publicity clanger when he was quoted on camera saying:
“I don’t want a bunch of scientists telling me that they know more than I do about all the dogs I’ve known over 40 years”
So no, there can be no ire directed at the Kennel Club for putting the PR machine into overdrive on today of all days. Excpet when you start to peel away some of the layers of what one may be inclined to call deceptive marketing.
A search conducted on Google performed just a few hours ago for the search term ‘RSPCA’ and what website should we find sitting boldly in the paid-for-listing area of the world’s most popular search engine? You guess right, www.doggenetichealth.org (see the image below, click to enlarge)
For those unfamiliar with how Google advertising works, it’s relatively simple to explain. Your instruct Google to display your web site advert based on certain ‘keywords’ typed into the search engine. So for the website doggenetichealth.org to appear in the paid-for-listings or sponsored area of Google’s search results for the specific search term ‘RSPCA’ it means the advertiser is paying for that position. The RSPCA is, it goes without saying, an internationally recognised and TradeMarked brand name.
So what are web users to think?
They conduct a search for the UK’s most prominent animal welfare organisation and are met with a prominent advert for doggenetichealth.org - which is a pro Kennel Club site being used in the PR fight against the (as yet unbroadcast) documentary Pedigree Dogs Exposed.
But aren’t the Kennel Club and RSPCA in some deal of opposition regarding this whole issue?
Didn’t the RSPCA’s chief vet describe, in no uncertain terms, his feelings toward what is happening on the Kennel Club’s watch with regard to pedigree dogs?
How do you think the RSPCA would react should you or I purchase their trademarked name in the Google advertising system if we were publicly at loggerheads over a high profile issue?
Deceptive? Fair game? You be the judge of that.
The RSPCA has spoken to us about this issue, they say:
Unfortunately Google have changed their rules which now allows any organisation to advertise under any brand name, hence this site is legally allowed to redirect traffic to their site via the RSPCA as a search term. I think this has presented a problem for many corporates and I believe there are a number of test cases in court at present so it’s a case of watch this space with regard to Google’s rules.
And no, this is not a site that the RSPCA is associated with. Fortunately, the RSPCA’s website is top of the list on the non-paid for returns in the search engine so if people want to find out more about the RSPCA’s work on indeed our stance on the issue of dog breeding, hopefully they will just click on the link to our site.
For the record, when K9Magazine.com ran a negative press story regarding Crufts dog show (back in 2005), we received contact from the Kennel Club to remove the use of the Crufts logo in relation to the editorial, as it was of a negative nature. Fair enough, we did.
Furthermore, K9 Media (the publisher of K9 Magazine) also received a call from an RSPCA corporate lawyer in 2007 regarding use of their logo on one of our websites. This was sorted out amicably and put down to a misunderstanding on behalf of the RSPCA - that logo remained in place, but it emphasises how importantly large organisations take their intellectual property and trademarks.
Less than one month ago, the Kennel Club took the matter of online deception so seriously, they pursued and won an action against the registrar of the domain name thekennelclub.co.uk
The UK’s internet domain name dispute resolution service, Nominet, ruled that the registration was ‘abusive’ and ordered that the domain name be handed over to the KC
So it comes as somewhat of a surprise that the people who are marketing the pro Kennel Club website www.doggenetichealth.org, are paying for the search terms ‘RSPCA’ and ‘Pedigree Dogs Exposed’. In fact, many in the new media marketing world would venture as far as to say it’s an extremely controversial practice, no matter what the circumstances.
RELATED LINKS:
- Pedigree Dogs Exposed - Radio Discussion
- BBC Issues Crufts TV Coverage Position re Pedigree Dogs Exposed
- RSPCA Chief Vet Condemns ‘Parade of Mutants’ - Pedigree Dogs Exposed
- BBC’s Continued Coverage of Crufts In Doubt in Wake of Pedigree Dogs Exposed Program
Ryan O'Meara is editor-in-chief of K9 Magazine, the lifestyle magazine for dog lovers. He lives in the East Midlands with his own two dogs, Mia and Chloe. - See this author's webpage
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Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Animal Charities, Animal Welfare, Pet Industry. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
we in the working dog community have been screaming out for action on the effects of the KC and show world on breeds of dogs that are no longer fit for purpose. This is the case for working gundogs, labs, spaniels, setters, gsp’s etc that are being bred for the ring with no regard for their abiltiy to work.
The protection sports ie working trails and schutzhund have had to bring in bloodlines from abroad for over 20 years due to the poor state of gsd’s that have such angulation that they are ubable to work, also they do not have sound enough tempramnt and nerves, so are not fit for purpose.
In germany and other places several working breeds can not breed unless they pass working trials and health checks to show they are sound in body and mind. And yet the KC will not even recognise schutzhund and activley tries to smear the sport, heaven forbid that breeding numbers drop due to owners having to train their dogs to a descent standard to show they are sound.
250,000 pups a year at £12 pound a registartion….
I am the James Johnson referred to in the above post.
I am afraid you have jumped to incorrect conclusions. Publitek New Media Ltd creates multimedia, Publitek Ltd - the PR company - is actually a separate company to Publitek New Media Ltd, and has no association with The Kennel Club whatsoever - they specialise in PR for the electronics sector.
Myself and my company Publitek New Media Ltd were contracted by the Kennel Club in 2004 to create a web site aimed at dog owners and breeders. The aim of the site - doggenetichealth.org - was to educate about genetic diseases in dogs and how dog breeders can avoid them. I worked with the Kennel Clubs geneticist on this project, and was chosen because of my background - I have a degree in biology and experience creating educational multimedia. I was previously head of multimedia at the Natural History Museum in London.
doggenetichealth.org is not a PR exercise, but a genuine and well intentioned attempt to help reduce genetic disorders in dogs. You will see from the domain name record that the site has been running since 2004. It has proved helpful to many dog owners and the interactives are used in schools to help teach genetics.
Finally, myself or Publitek New Media Ltd had no part in purchasing the Google advertising you mention in the above post.
I have received unpleasant email this morning attacking me personally. I would ask you please to remove this post as it is highly misleading.
How can you not expect the Kenenl Club to put PR and advertising in place after such a biased unjust programme?!!
THe Kennel Club have had schemes in place for years to try and iradicate breeding in breeds, but it can’t happen over night! They aren’t the government and they can’t put legislation in place. As they said last night, if they suddenly came down on all breeders “you must do this” they won’t and will go and breed anyway without any guidance!
Its caome from Supply and demand and if the public demanded that they will only buy a pedigree dog from a Kennel Club Accredited Breeder then all breeders would have to join the Scheme and muct conduct the health schemes which are required. But if there are people that will buy from these bad breeders and puppy farmers then this breeding will still happen.
The research that was talked abotu on the show last night fromt he Imperial college woudln’t have been possible without the Kennel Club as they backed it and allowed them access to all their records - why would they do that if they didn’t care about the welfare of dogs??!!
Take a look at the Kennel Club’s Charitable Trust - http://www.kccharitabletrust.org.uk and look at all the money it has put into the health and welfare of dogs. The KC is a not for profit aorgansisation and all money is reinvested back into schemes to help dogs. Have a look at their website and make an educated guess before believing the “News of the World” Journalism that the programme last ngiht protrayed.
The Kennel Club’s role is to represent the commercial interests of dog breeders, not the welfare of dogs. So it’s not surprising that dogs are allowed to suffer and that cruel practices are institutionalised by the KC. Bear in mind that the KC also supports and takes sponsorship money from pet food companies like Iams that conduct painful lab experiments on animals. In any culture that treats animals purely as ornaments and objects, there is a danger that their welfare will be sacrificed to the sickening degree exposed last night.
It may appear misleading now the records have been changed James, but at the time it was registered to Publitek New Media Ltd.
I was brought up to stay away from trouble or expect trouble to find me. Im guessng the same applies here?
The blame for the present disgusting situation of chronically ill and deformed dogs and the ever narrowing genepools has to be laid at the door of the SHOW breeders who, for years, have slavishly bred according their misguided interpretation of the breed standards. In their desperation to win rosettes and trophies they have created many exaggerated dogs and JUDGES HAVE REWARDED these exaggerations thus perpetuating the crime. And in my opinion it is a crime. eg “well angulated” gsds are now over angulated cripples, bulldogs “massive” skulls are ultra massive deformities, “cobby” pugs now have stomach tissue intruding into chest cavities, weather resistant double coats of rough collies are now an impediment to the dog in the all weather.Low to the ground bassets are now unathletic bags of loose flesh and slobber who battle to shuffle around the ring yet the chairman of the basset club insists they have improved this breed of hunting hound in the last 60 years!Pa-leeZ! The KC is run by these same people - they will never change - the programme highlighted their ignorance of the original function of their breeds and blindness to the problem - Irvine’s angry response of saying that he didnt need scientists telling him about dogs is typical of the arrogance. The KC should be disbanded, in-breeding and line breeding banned and the breeding of pedigree dogs should be under the guidance and supervision of knowledgeble people - geneticists, vets, dog welfare specialists and dog historians. No dog should be bred from that has not had every health test possible and a working qualification.Registries should be thrown open to broaden the gene pool eg welsh or patterdale terriers could be used to bring new blood into lakelands and inter variety breeding between the varieties of belgian shepherds should be encouraged not banned as it is now.