I've decided to share some interesting information regarding a recent chain of events involving the proposed AKC standard revision for the Chihuahua. Our breed experiences many similarities with the Chihuahua breed . Both breeds are toy breeds, whose function is companionship. Both breeds enjoy general popularity and large numbers of annual registrations. (Many of these registrations originate with commercial breeders or pet breeders who sell through pet shops, internet agents and newspaper ads). The AKC Chihuahua standard states "any color" allowed, the AKC Pomeranian standard states "all colors, patterns and variations thereof" allowed. So when it comes to the recent efforts by the CCA to revise their standard and deal with the controversial merle pattern issue, we here in the Pom world have understandably begun to sit up and take notice. 

The CCA recently submitted to AKC proposed revisions to their standard. One of these revisions is a disqualification of the merle pattern. By a vote of 11-1, the AKC Board of Directors approved this standard revision to be sent to the CCA membership for a vote. Ballots were sent out to the membership.

Within days, AKC board member Steve Gladstone (the lone dissenting vote) emailed a letter to approximately 100 CCA members (and also many non-members). The subject line of this email was "AKC DIRECTOR STATEMENT". Here is the email note which was sent out to the CCA members by Gladstone:

 

Subject: AKC Director Statement

 

My name is Steven D. Gladstone, Esq., I am currently President-elect of the CWCCA; a Director of the AKC, Class of 2009; Chairman of the Board, AKC Companion Animal Recovery, Inc. and a Director of the AKC Canine Health Foundation. I have long time breeding experience and a long time political experience to analyze dog politics.  I felt it necessary to take this time to write to you in regards to your upcoming AKC Chihuahua Breed Standard Revisions.  Please take the time to review the attached letter on these matters at hand, and if it careful consideration.  You can contact me with any questions you may have regarding this information.

 

 Gladstone then attached his letter, again rattling off his list of “credentials”: as a merle breeder of Cardigan Welsh Corgis, AKC board member, chairman of AKC Companion Animal Recovery, and director of AKC Canine Health Foundation. 
 
Gladstone’s letter was written on AKC letterhead, AKC logo upper left corner, and listing in the upper right hand corner Gladstone’s name and position listed as “Director”.
Gladstone is urging the CCA membership to reject the proposed DQ of the merle pattern.

He states in his letter that there are only problems with merle when a "double merle" is produced; that "a person who knows about dogs would not breed a double merle", and that a vote to ban merle chihuahuas would support animal rights activists. (All of these statements regarding merle are erroneous, but this would be the subject of another article!)

Gladstone followed up this mass emailing with a postal mailing, sending out a 16-page packet promoting his pro-merle viewpoint....again, repeatedly emphasizing his position with AKC.

Chihuahua Club of America board of directors immediately returned a letter of objection to the AKC Board of Directors, requesting censure of Gladstone and written retraction of his statements. Incredibly, in a letter from James Crowley to the CCA, AKC failed to acknowledge CCA's legitimate concerns, and refused to act. (Both the CCA letter to AKC and Crowley's response are posted on the CCA website). Crowley’s rationale for dismissing any concerns was that Gladstone stated in his PS (at the end of his two-page letter) that his opinions were his own. Nowhere, however, did Gladstone clearly state that he was not representing AKC, and many CCA members believed that they were being counseled by AKC on how to vote in their election. 

 "When an AKC Director interferes with a Parent Club, any Parent Club, in this manner it is serious to all parent clubs." states Carol Williams, president of the American Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Club. "Parent Clubs are the guardians of their breeds. AKC Directors should not interfere in this manner.....For an AKC Director to interfere with a Parent Club in this manner is, in my opinion, totally inappropriate and if not addressed by other (or all) parent clubs, could set a very dangerous precedent. I don't care whether he put a disclaimer at the end of his letter or not. The letter was sent by an AKC Director, on AKC letterhead."
 

Graham Foote has been a Chihuahua breeder for over 40 years, he is also the Chairman of the British Chihuahua Club and a long time exhibitor and judge of Chihuahuas all over the world. Regarding the letter by Gladstone, Mr. Foote comments:
"He (Gladstone) is, of course, perfectly entitled to his opinion, but I must admit that I am surprised that he gets away with using the AKC letterhead in trying to influence the voting of members of a breed that he has nothing to do with. I am sure that the AKC is a respected organisation and although he has a small two line disclaimer saying that his views are not intended to suggest endorsement by any of the organisations mentioned, he does not specifically mention the AKC as not endorsing his views. The letter is on an AKC letterhead and when he mentions his credentials he goes on at length about being a board member of the AKC and the positions that he has held within the AKC, also in a later paragraph after saying that England (I presume this means the British Kennel Club) has banned merle Chihuahuas with little cause, he comments "We are trying to have that poor decision reconsidered". I believe most members of the CCA will think that in WE he is referring to the AKC, as trying to have the decision reconsidered and may indeed vote to support what is after all their governing body. So the pro-banning lobby is likely to lose votes."
"As chairman of the BCC, I would be astounded if, whoever it is, that is trying to get our Kennel Club to change the ban on merle colour in Chihuahuas, has any success. All our chihuahua breed clubs had a free vote and in eight out of nine clubs in the country, the vast majority of members voted in favor of the ban. I believe our members voted in favour of the ban because we have never had merle chihuahuas in the UK, and believe that our breed (like most breeds) have plenty of health-related problems that need to be bred out, so why start to breed in new health problems and put our breed through unnecessary suffering."
"We have had the breed in the country since early in the 20th century, when they were mainly imported from the States. Practically all our breeding stock was lost in the 1940's, but a considerable number were imported from the States again in the early 1950's, so our lines originated from the States and over the years others have been imported from the States, yet we do not have the merle gene in our breed. I think that in general we accept the scenario put forward that this gene has been introduced in the states by crossing with other breeds, otherwise it would surely have shown up in our lines over the years."
"Even if not in particularly large numbers, it does on occasions appear to cause eye and hearing problems and I think all breeds with the merle gene present admit to this. It therefore seems to me to be cruel to let our chi's suffer to satisfy certain individuals' vanity in their preference for a particular colour."
"We do not have the gene in other than a handful of Chi's recently imported into this country from the States, and I think no truly caring breeders will want to allow this gene to proliferate in the UK, and this is no doubt why the vote against it was so strong."

CCA member Gloria Lambert responded to Gladstone:

 

“While breeds such as yours limit the number of color patterns, I doubt very highly that the CCA will follow suit, since the addition thru cross breeding of this pattern has occurred in Chihuahuas. Our breed has traditionally allowed all colors. What you refer to as "scare tactics" is truthful, factual, scientific, information. I have attached two photos that I am sure will dispute your comments. We did not have these problems in our breed before the addition of merle and there is no way anyone can claim they are doing no harm when they are adding this pattern. There is no need to perpetuate these types of dogs because some have thought to cross breed to add a pattern that has not existed in this breed in its history until recently. The white Chihuahua is a double merle but the NO EYE Chihuahua is a single merle.”

Lambert continued, “While I appreciate your concern for animal rights activists that are trying to control breeders in general, I and many others believe our breed will be animal rights activist fodder, if people are allowed to continue with a pattern that has traditionally been bred safely only in breeds with LIMITED color patterns.”

“I have to say that I take great offense at your use of the AKC letterhead to get your "personal" point across. I have sent this on to club relations. Abuse of power is an unattractive trait. You are interfering in a ballot for a club and a breed that you are neither a member or an owner/breeder. While I appreciate you have dogs and that you fancy yourself an expert in the merle gene I have to say I am disappointed that someone connected to AKC can be so ignorant of scientific research and that they would use their position to influence a vote when they "do not have a dog in this fight"”

 

Ms. Lambert also responded to Mr. Crowley:

January 22, 2008

Dear Mr. Crowley,

Thank you for your email reply regarding the mass email that was sent by Mr. Steven Gladstone, to members of the Chihuahua Club of America as well as to others who are not members.

 Again I was disappointed by your response, as it greatly under estimates the effect of the AKC logo on correspondence received by those who are active in the dog fancy. Some members of the Chihuahua Club of America believed that the letter was an official AKC letter and that it was counseling them how the AKC believed they should vote on the standard ballot. Do you not see the problem?......The impression that the communication is OFFICIAL and from AKC has already been made. To put a "Post Script" is rather like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube - the impression (misrepresentation?) has already been made."
"I register my dogs with AKC. Since you yourselves have now set the precedent, if anyone can use the logo for personal comments, may I expect there will not be a problem if I add the logo myself in my own correspondence while expressing a personal opinion, provided I use a post script?"

"Your reply notes that on a vote of 11-1 by the AKC Board of Directors, the standard changes were approved to be submitted to the membership for a vote. Will the membership and others who received this email from Mr. Gladstone, now receive 11 email communications, on AKC stationary, from each Board member advising why they voted to allow Chihuahua Club members to consider and vote on the proposed changes? That would be refreshing, and would reassure those members who felt intimidated by Mr. Steven Gladstone's email message."

"It is very disturbing to see one individual improperly use the "logo" of the AKC to make such an obvious effort to sway the membership of the Chihuahua Club of America to their perspective, on the interpretation of the merle color pattern. Someone doing this at the same time as the membership is completing their ballots, while under the guise of an AKC official is in my opinion reprehensible."

There are a few other "credentials" which Gladstone neglects to mention in his letter. He is AKC’s staunchest supporter of PAWS. He is also an enthusiastic fan of commercial breeders. Gladstone has been a member of the AKC's High Volume Breeders (HVB) committee and has been the keynote speaker at Hunte corporation breeders' seminars...The Hunte Corporation is a company that buys puppies from commercial facilities and resells them to pet stores.

 Driven by animal rights activists who oppose all breeding, “PAWS”, (Pet Animal Welfare Statute), was a bill which was defeated in 2005. "PAWS" proposed to regulate breeders by the numbers they produce and sell. This numbers game would have resulted in many hobby breeders falling under the same rules and regulations as commercial kennels.

Why would Gladstone lobby heavily in support of PAWS; and, in his next breath, lecture the dog fancy to be wary of the animal rights groups?

 

Why would Gladstone tout his position with AKC’s Canine Health Foundation, and at the same time advocate for promotion of the merle gene, with its attendant defects of vision and hearing? These defects have been well-documented for decades in breeds where merle is a common coat pattern....frighteningly commonly in homozygous "double" merles, but there are also cases of eye abnormalities in heterozygous "single" merles. 

Breeds which have traditionally embraced the merle pattern also strictly limit their allowable colors, in an admirable attempt to limit production of handicapped dogs. Remember, the Chihuahua and Pomeranian breeds do not at this time limit acceptable colors or patterns in their current AKC standards.

These vision and hearing problems in merles are fairly common; so common, in fact, that there are rescue groups devoted exclusively to placing such handicapped dogs.

Quite puzzling is the refusal of AKC to censure Gladstone for this abuse of his position of power. Gloria Lambert states "It does make one wonder if this person is acting alone or with corporate blessings".  Has Gladstone and the rest of the AKC board forgotten that AKC was founded on the admirable goals of breeding the best dogs, of protecting the various breeds from fashion fads, of promoting improvement in our individual breeding programs?  

Graham Foote closes his letter, "Going back to your original question of what I thought about Mr. Gladstone's letter, only he knows what is behind it, but one thing for sure, it certainly is not the love of Chihuahuas."

"Registration of merle Chihuahuas has been banned in both Australia and England. In Canada, merle chihuahuas are now banned from the show ring. Germany has banned merle Chihuahuas from both breeding and exhibition, while South Africa and Mexico are working toward similar resolutions." 
(Source: The Dog Press)