Editorial: November 29, 2024

We have a new president of the United States in a country that is sadly still divided on the direction in which we should be going. But if the dog world is a microcosm of the whole world, then we should now focus on us. Several delegates have declared their intention to run for the board of directors of the American Kennel Club. Some are well known to us, and other not so. There is time until the upcoming elections in March to learn about what these delegates would do if they were elected to the board. Because of a loophole (whether intentional or not) in our term limits for board members, what has become commonplace is for a director to serve two four-year terms, skip a year, then run again — resulting in serving 16 years instead of eight. Even the president of the United States can only serve two terms in total and never run again. One would hope that the delegate body would remove this loophole and amend the rule pertaining to the term limits for directors. Term limits were created to limit the two terms, whether run concurrently or singly; bringing back the same director term after term defeats its intended purpose. Even so, the current board has tried twice to have this rule stricken, so that they can run as long as they like, and for many on the board that’s forever. Some of the major problems facing our sport seem to be kicked down the road and not addressed. Some of these issues include the number of dog shows held, clustering, two shows in one day and the need to advance judges to fill these long weekends, where clubs only want to hire multiple-group judges. There is a void left by clubs clustering in one venue, and the public in the areas that they leave has no exposure to purebred dogs. What remains in those areas are the animal-rights advocates, who have the ear of the local politicians without any input from our community. Plus, the lack of public awareness of the joys of purebred dog ownership and the good works that are done by the American Kennel Club, which are well known by us but sadly not the public. These are formidable issues that need to be addressed. Now you that you know the names of the delegates running for the board of directors, ask what they plan to bring to the table if they are elected to the board of directors. (For a start, see the Question of the Week in this issue.) That stock answer of “giving back to the sport” is nice but meaningless. Get facts, get involved. Just like the recent national election, your vote counts. But in our case, it’s your club’s vote that counts.