CKC Admits To Being Unable of Controlling

CKC Admits To Being Unable of Controlling
Puppy Mills and Unethical Breeders!

The CKC's Chief Executive Officer, Bryan Hocking, in an article in the CKC's own "Dogs in Canada" magazine in its November 1997 issue, writes, and I quote:

"Unethical Breeders - The Bane of Our Existence
Part II- By the "Authority" Vested in CKC...

Regularly I receive letters from our members and the general public which express concern about the activities or actions of unethical breeders. Many of these letters contain questions or comments which are critical of CKC. The following are just a few samples; "Why does CKC allow some breeders to register so many dogs?"; "It seems that CKC cares more about registration revenue than the well-being of purebred dogs."; "Why doesn't CKC get tough with unethical breeders?"; "How can CKC, in all good conscience, allow some of these breeders to continue registering dogs?"; "The CKC should set a maximum on the number of breeds in a kennel."; "Why does CKC even allow these bad breeds to exist?".

These are words of frustration. To be sure, in each instance the writer has had an unfortunate experience with a bad breeder and far too often, the bad breeder is operating one of the puppy mills to which I referred in last month's article. These people are hurt, offended or, in some cases, just plain angry. As a result, they are looking to someone to exact some form of punishment upon such breeders. At the very least, they expect the problem to be addressed and ultimately rectified.

When someone has a problem with a purebred dog or the breeder of purebred dogs, it is perfectly natural that they turn to CKC for help. After all, CKC is the preeminent authority on purebred dogs in Canada. We have been around for over a century, we register 160 different breeds and we govern thousands of purebred dog events across Canada each year. Therefore, the CKC must have the authority to deal with these bad breeders. But, in reality, is this actually the case?

The Canadian Kennel Club is a non-profit organization which exists for the sole purpose of furthering the interests of purebred dogs. Generally speaking, we set our own destiny in this regard. As a specific-interest, self-funded, member-driven organization, we enjoy our independence in program development and initiatives which benefit both our members and the purebred dog. We can even set tough standards and hold very high expectations of our members. If any of our members step out of line and violate any of the fundamental principles, objects or rules of this Club, then most assuredly they can be disenfranchised and their names removed from our roster. They could even be debarred, thus disallowing them from participating in any CKC events. Over all of this, the CKC has total autonomy and absolute authority.

Not so, however, in the area of registration. As an authorized registry body, we have far less independence. We are compelled to administer this function in strict compliance with the Animal Pedigree Act. The Act, administered by Agriculture Canada, is a piece of federal legislation which governs the breeding of all purebred species in Canada. The purebred dog is but one of many such species. Canada is rather unique in this sense. I am not aware of any other country in the world which has this type of legislation in place to govern the registration of purebred dogs.

It is true that our own CKC By-laws also speak to registration; however, they must complement the Act and may never exceed the authority of the Act. In fact, our By-Laws have to be approved by Agriculture Canada before they can be enacted. Therefore, for registry purposes' the Act and the federal government are the real authority. The CKC has simply been empowered with the right to administer the process under their set of rules.

What does this mean?

First of all, it is very important to understand that we are obligated under the Act to accept registrations from both members of CKC and non-members alike, a fact which is often misunderstood by our own members. It is actually against the law for us to impose mandatory CKC membership upon anyone who wishes to register dogs. At best, we are permitted to charge non-members higher fees for our services than those which we charge CKC members. Beyond that, however, non-members must be treated in exactly the same manner as members when it comes to the registration of purebred dogs.

If anyone violates one of our By-laws, disciplinary procedures can be brought against them, whether they are members of this Club or not. If convicted, non-members could have an administration fee levied against them. Convicted CKC members would not only risk having an administration fee levied against than, but they could also lose their membership in CKC. In either case, the individual may be deprived of registration privileges, however, only in such cases where the violation is related to eligibility for registration, identification or the keeping of private breeding records. Beyond that, CKC does not have the authority to deprive anyone of registration privileges for any other violations of the CKC By-laws.

Further, we cannot deprive any breeder of registration privileges for bad breeding practices. We cannot deprive an individual for exercising bad business practices. Surprisingly, we cannot deprive anyone for buying, breeding or selling non-purebred dogs, as long as they do not sell the progeny as purebred", "registered" or "registerable" in Canada. This offense would, of course, result in a CKC member having his membership terminated, in that it would be contrary to the Objects of the CKC. However, once that member was terminated, he could not be deprived of registration privileges. As a non-member he would simply have to pay more to have his work processed.

As ridiculous as it may seem, we cannot even deprive a person of registration privileges if he is convicted of cruelty to animals, unless the judge actually orders registration deprivation as part of the penalty. Fortunately, this is usually the case.

The bottom line is that CKC can only deprive a breeder of registration privileges if he violates the Animal Pedigree Act or, if he violates a CKC By-law which is specifically reinforced by the Act.

By the same token, we cannot legally impose arbitrary requirements upon breeders, at least not for non-member breeders. For instance, we could not introduce a rule which restricted the number of bitches in a kennel. Nor could we place a maximum on the number of bitches in a kennel or the number of dogs registered by a breeder in any one year. Again, we possess no such authority.

Why is this the case? Because none of these matters are addressed in the Act nor, might I add, will they ever be included in the Act, because Agriculture Canada looks upon these matters as being moral issues rather than legal ones. They see the Act as effectively being a technical guideline for breeding, and argue that such other issues should be addressed in other forms of legislation.

Unfortunately, neither the general public nor many of our members are fully aware of these facts. As a result, CKC is too often viewed as having great authority which it ultimately chooses not to use. We have actually been portrayed, at times, as being at the root of the problem (remember Marketplace?). We are viewed by some of our members as an organization failing in its role while, at the same time, the general public looks upon us as being the protectors of all breeders, good and bad. The fact of the matter is that, at present, the CKC simply does not have any real authority to deal with this issue.

This being said, what then? Do we just give up? Do we just let bad breeders have their way?

Certainly not'. Bad breeders and puppy mills are the bane of our existence. They are the scourge of the purebred dog world and eventually they must be eliminated.

My purpose in writing this article was not to discourage, but rather, to inform the membership of the current reality; to clear away some old misconceptions. It is important that we all understand and accept the fact that we cannot rely solely upon the Animal Pedigree Act and the CKC By-laws to curb this ever-increasing problem. What we desperately need is another set of tools to fix the problem."

Here is a live example of an American puppy mill
See for yourself: visit this web site with up-to-date information and many pictures right now

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