Anyone care to comment? How soon before we will no longer be able to show our dogs? $25-$30 entry fees are getting very extreme and limiting entries in today's economy.
Let your club and AKC know how you feel about this.
susan
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AKC Dog Tax
Apparently, it is not bad enough that as dog enthusiasts and citizens that we have to contend with anti-dog legislation and higher taxes from Washington, and a recession. Now the AKC wants to hit us with a spurious $25 per year per dog tax for any dog entered in any AKC show once or more per year. This tax is to be used for Future Programs, with no indication as to what those programs may be. While, at the same time, the AKC is doing very little to fight our most pressing problem:
anti-dog legislation.
Over the past 12 months, I have paid for entries of 5 dogs (a total of approximately 20 entries, the only shows these 5 dogs were in) that I would not have made had this tax been in place. I made these entries simply to support the Chow entry at shows, to support a specific kennel club, or to support a Specialty show. The AKC would have gotten $125 for these entries; however, because I would not have made these entries, the tax would have cost the respective kennel clubs $600 in lost revenue.
We need to let the AKC know what we think of this tax.
________________________________
AKC dog tax
Below is a letter that the Toledo Kennel Club sent to AKC regarding the proposed dog tax that AKC wants to implement. We have received a response from AKC President Dennis Sprung which is also quoted below. This dog tax will be charged to everyone showing in any AKC event, conformation, agility, obedience, rally, etc. The dog tax is $25 per year per dog.
Hardy has given his permission to re-post this letter to anyone you think would be interested in this dog tax. Please feel free to use any part of the letter if you want to send a letter to AKC. And please send a letter to AKC regarding your views on the proposed dog tax. This was discussed at the December
2008 Delegates meeting. You can go to the AKC web site to read the delegates meeting minutes.
Thank you for your time in this matter.
Jackie Oricko
>> From: Hardress J. Waller
>> Subject: AKC Dog Tax
>> Date: Monday, February 16, 2009, 11:46 AM
>> To all Dog Club members:
>
>> Below is the text of a letter that was sent by the Board of the
>> Toledo Kennel Club to Mr. Sprung, President, and Mr.
>> Menaker, Board Chairman and CEO of the American Kennel Club.
>> This concerns the proposal that would require exhibitors to pay an
>> annual fee of $25 for each dog to be entered in any AKC event. This
>> could have a devastating effect on dog clubs across the country that
>> depend on income from event entry fees for their survival. Consider
>> that many entries are made to provide experience and exposure for
>> their young dogs, especially puppies, with little likelihood of
>> winning. Many
>>> others are made for sentimental reasons for veteran dogs in both
>>> Breed and Obedience. A substantial reduction in numbers of entries
>>> could be expected at any time, but especially in this time of crisis
>>> and economic uncertainty.
>
>> A telephone response from Mr. Sprung to Donna Anderson
>>> pointed out that he has received almost no opposition to the
>>> proposal, either by letter or email. A possible explanation for this
>>> is that so far few people are aware that this is a serious matter.
>>> The purpose of sending you the text of our TKC letter is not to
>>> recycle the language of the letter but to point out some of the
>>> issues and that out that some response is appropriate and urgent.
>>
>> Hardress J. Waller
Conformation Director, Toledo Kennel Club
>>
>--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- ---------
--------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
>
>> 3 February 2009
>> Dennis B. Sprung
>> President and Chief Executive Officer
>>> The American Kennel Club
>>> 260 Madison Ave.
>>> New York, NY 10016
>
>
>> Dear Mr. Sprung:
>> This letter concerns the report published in the current Gazette (AKC
>> Gazette 2009, 126 (1): 88-89) which makes general reference to a
>> "Future Program", to be funded by a Dog Tax of approximately $25
>> annually for each dog to be entered in an AKC event. We believe it is
>> unfortunate that the officials of the American Kennel Club would make
>> such a proposal at any time, but especially at this time of economic
>> turmoil that affects everyone.
>
>> Unemployment is expected to reach 10% during 2009, and many others
>> face serious financial problems. The depressed economy obviously will
>> have a severe impact on participation in dog shows and other dog
>> events throughout the country and will threaten the survival of
>> show-giving clubs. The proposed Dog Tax would reduce dog show entries
>> even during normal times, but at this time could be catastrophic.
>> That the President and Directors would propose such a Dog Tax
>> suggests that the AKC may be out of touch with the real world of dog
>> people, and that a re-examination of the role and purpose of the AKC
>> is both appropriate and desirable.
>> AKC devotes a great amount of energy to promote mega-shows, including
>> Westminster and the Eukanuba National. These are obviously intended
>> to promote the image of the American Kennel Club. They attract much
>> media attention, provide lucrative rewards for professional handlers,
>> and provide wide recognition for some prominent dogs and their
>> breeders.
>
>> Objectively, however, this is a minute fraction of all of the dogs
>> and handlers that participate in dog shows, obedience, agility, and
>> performance events. The real world is the sum of the thousands of
>> dogs and hundreds of dog organizations throughout the U.S., west of
>> the Hudson River and east of Long Beach. Historically, the greatest
>> contribution of the AKC have been to provide the essential
>> administrative infrastructure for dog events and dog clubs, as well
>> as to provide the necessary dog registry and breed definitions. The
>> result has been that in the latter part of the 20th Century the
>> number of AKC-sanctioned events progressively increased along with
>> growth in participation in these events even though dogs no longer
>> were the pastime primarily of the wealthy. We believe that it is
>> essential that AKC not take actions and adopt policies that are
>> likely to interfere with the interest and enthusiasm shown by dog
>> owners, weaken the clubs, and jeopardize their future.
>> Recently the trend of increasing dog show entries has reversed. This
>> was apparent during the period of high gasoline prices when entries
>> for many events declined. The change can be attributed to obvious
>> factors: The direct effect was the cost of travel reducing the
>> geographic area
> from which entries were made. The indirect effect was that
>> the disposable of income of all potential exhibitors was sharply
>> decreased. The importance of this is that, throughout most of the
>> country, potential exhibitors are not affluent and their dog
>> activities are governed by the size of their disposable income. Even
>> in favorable times, this amount often is small. Now that we are in a
>> period of extreme economic difficulty severely affecting millions of
>> ordinary people, it is difficult to justify your degree of support of
>> programs designed primarily to expand the image, power, and influence
>> of the AKC but which will have little real benefit beyond this. When
>> it becomes a choice between dog show entries and dog food, most of
>> those we know would choose dog food. This clearly is the worst
>> possible time to propose a dog tax that will further suppress entries
>> for dog events.
>> Another aspect of this problem relates to the alternate dog registry
>> whose existence AKC never acknowledges, the United Kennel Club. In
>> the real world, many members of our and other clubs enter UKC events.
>> Their Conformation events are valuable because they provide
>> relatively inexpensive and convenient show training experience for
>> both dogs and handlers. UKC Obedience and Agility trials operate
>> under somewhat different rules than AKC events, generally have lower
>> entry fees, and are valuable in their own right. If the AKC dog tax
>> is adopted, it is very likely to stimulate a large increase in UKC
>> entries along with a corresponding decrease in AKC entries. This
>> could further increase the serious economic problems faced by AKC
>> clubs such as ours, which depend to a large extent on income from
>> shows and trials to support the costs of our building. We have not
>> seen evidence that UKC has planned a dog tax.
>> We believe that it is an appropriate time to seriously consider which
>> of the programs described in the report to the Delegates genuinely
>> advance the mission of both the AKC
> and the many AKC-sanctioned dog clubs, and which of those
>> may be of little or no value. There is a danger of overstating the
>> importance of the AKC role in some of these.
>
>> For example, the support of AKC for opposition to anti-dog
>> legislation is commendable, but in Ohio and recently in California,
>> the most effective opposition came from local, intrastate
>> organizations. This is because the local groups are also the
>> constituents of the city, county, and state legislators directly
>> involved with such legislation. We question whether it is necessary
>> or even desirable for AKC to be involved in a frozen-semen program
>> for future breeding of a few dogs currently deemed highly desirable
>> (the "Future Program"). Programs to promote responsible dog ownership
>> are desirable, but they also are inherently local, probably best
>> carried on by local organizations and groups including even our own
>> Toledo Humane Society and Toledo Area Metro parks. AKC attempts to
>> promote dog registration through advertising at pet stores and other
>> means. However, the limited success of such efforts is probably
>> because pet owners are not convinced that there is a tangible
>> benefit. The potential benefits become much more apparent when new
>> dog owners attend local dog club
> activities and are directly exposed at the local level to
>> dog training classes, educational programs, and dog events.
>> In summary, the report to the Delegates' meeting briefly describes
>> elaborate, obviously very costly advertising, promotional, and
>> hopefully educational programs to be run from New York. However, the
>> AKC Board should recognize that small-scale programs with similar
>> objectives are regularly carried on at very low cost and often with
>> greater success by dog clubs throughout the U.S.
>> This letter expresses views of the Board of Directors of
the Toledo Kennel Club, Inc., as affirmed by the signatures below. The Toledo Kennel Club, Inc. is a member club of the American Kennel Club.
