I am happy to report that the management of the Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center in Fitchberg, Massachusetts has cleared the air with regard as to whether or not dogs will be welcomed at its facility. Most assuredly they are now welcomed and will be welcomed in the foreseeable future, too. This dog friendly location has turned into an important venue for that area and its loss would have been a major problem. Indeed the few times we have gone to shows there the experiences were pleasant ones and with the major do-over planned it should be even more of an enjoyable venue than it is now. The confusion about its status apparently arose in negotiations between the New England Sporting dog people and a representative of the hotel. Where the communications broke down no one seems to know but certainly Peggy Wompold's article was written in good faith and based upon information provided to her. What was pretty disheartening from our viewpoint was the receipt of a bogus e-mail from an individual who used a phony e-mail address. It was created as a nasty e-mail which he or she sent alleged to be from an organization called AKCJudges@ aol.com – an address created for the moment and then disbanded. Sort of reminds me of the AKC Delegate who used his daughters e-mail address to question something I had written, not realizing I would check it out. These kinds of people don't have the courage to stand up for their convictions much less deserve the use of the Internet at all. Too bad there is no recourse in these kinds of instances, isn’t it!!
Speaking of recourse, the PETA reaction to Oprah's show on puppy mills blasted AKC to the point of being totally incredulous. Saying that AKC deserves "the lion's share of the blame for the deaths of more than 3 million dogs and cats every year" belies a reasonable reaction to the puppy mill situation. But let's face it; whoever said Ingrid Newkirk and her staffers were reasonable? They thrive on misstatements and exaggerations of truth and woo people with false and misleading statements. Fortunately their crazy tactics may have met a Waterloo as its offer to pay a million dollars for fake meat has caused per The New York Times of April 21 a "near civil war" within the organization. Too bad I say – it should have caused a TOTAL civil war. Nothing short of that satisfies me insofar as PETA is concerned. “Darling” Ingrid has been trying and has hoped to get PETA involved in advancing in vitro meat technology for at least a decade. It seems many of the PETA members are repulsed by the thought of eating animal tissue, even if no animals are killed. A vice president of PETA was quoted as saying on the topic she would prefer to promote the eating of road kill rather than in vitro test tube burgers. And these are the people the celebrities of the world endorse? How bizarre and macabre, to my mind at any rate.
Interesting development in the UK relative to the German Shepherd judging at Crufts. I did not intend to get into the matter at all because after all I am anything but a GSD expert nor enthusiast. This despite the fact I wanted a Manhattan puppy more than anything but I was overruled in the matter. A call to split the GSD into two types has been signed by over 1,000 breed enthusiasts in GB as a result of the post Crufts dispute about the dog which was awarded BOB there. Almost sounds like our Akita struggles of the past few years. I had heard a lot about the GSD, which I believe was from Switzerland but did not get to the breed ring to see it at Crufts due to prior commitments. Most reports were extremely favorable about him after the breed and I looked forward to seeing him in the Group ring that night. To say I was disappointed is to put it mildly but I kept my mouth shut since really my opinion about the breed was and remains quite meaningless. What happened over there – the furor resulted from the breed judges critique. Even I knew there was a difference in breed type between the "British" and the "Germanic" and I think insofar as the American GSD is concerned as well. Whether or not the war is fought and who wins is secondary to the fact that a split in breed types in different countries is almost de rigour. I mean just look at Beagles in the USA and in the UK, at English Springers in those two countries almost ad nauseum. However the difference with the GSD appears to be within the UK rather than foreign differentials. If every breed were to be split because breeders differ in interpretation of standards what would the conformation world become? Let's face it; standards were made to be interpreted by breeders and for breeders to breed according to their individual understanding of the breed and its standard. A little difference in opinion is healthy for the breed, I think anyways.