Hans Müller, President

CLUB CANIN CANADIEN
December 30, 2006
Hans Müller, President
Fédération Cynologique Internationale
13 Place Albert Ier
B – 6530 Thuin, (Belgique)
Dear Herr Müller:
We are writing concerning the recent decision of the
General Committee that was recorded in FCI Circular 125/2006, a copy of which was officially communicated to
the Canadian Kennel Club by letter dated November 30, 2006.
Members of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Kennel Club wish to formally convey to the members of the General Committee our sincere regret for the events
that led your Committee to make this decision. While some correspondence was apparently never received by the CKC’s Head Office, the failure to respond to the correspondence that was received is inexcusable as was the failure to bring that correspondence to the attention of the Board of Directors. The Board has since taken appropriate administrative sanctions and also directed a review of our internal office procedures to ensure there is no repetition of such an unfortunate and embarrassing
incident.
With the cooperation of your Executive Director, in late November, the Chair of the CKC Board of Directors received duplicate copies of all letters previously sent to the Canadian Kennel Club on behalf of the General Committee. In this letter, we will address the issues raised in your correspondence.
The Board of Directors met in regular session on December 9 and 10, 2006 and had an opportunity to review the FCI correspondence.
One of the issues over which the General Committee had expressed concern had to do with CKC judges representing themselves as all-breed FCI judges. Our Board fully
agrees that we have not licensed CKC judges for breeds that we do not recognize and that representation of CKC credentials as “FCI all breed” amounts to misrepresentation of their credentials by those judges. The fact that this practice involved a very small minority of our judges does not make it any more acceptable and the Board of Directors has taken immediate action to resolve this concern. An amendment to the Guidelines for Conformation Judges was adopted by the Board on December 10, 2006. The amendment prohibits any CKC accredited judge from representing himself or herself as being licensed by any foreign accrediting body or
organization unless that judge has express permission to do so from that body or organization. Our judges are currently being informed of this.
The other issue raised in your correspondence is more complex. You had asked why the registries of certain FCI member countries were not recognized by the Canadian
Kennel Club. We do want to note that we recognize the registries of a large number of FCI member countries. Attached to this letter is a copy of chapter IV of our Policy and Procedures Manual, and we refer you to Appendix 5 (p. 4:65) which sets out the studbooks that are currently recognized by the CKC. Our procedure for adding new CANADIAN KENNEL CLUB CLUB CANIN CANADIEN
stud books to that list has been in place for a number of years and involves the making of a request by the foreign kennel club that wishes its stud book to be recognized. Those requirements are explained in section P.3 of Chapter IV.
Dogs of a recognized breed that are imported to Canada with a pedigree certified by a non-recognized stud book may still be registered provided the conditions set out in the Special Regulations approved by the Canadian government’s Department of Agriculture are met. These regulations are set out as section F.14 of chapter IV (p. 4:17).
Under one or the other of these procedures, it has always been possible for dogs from all FCI member country registries to be accepted in the Canadian registry
provided the original registration meets our By-law requirements and those of the Animal Pedigree Act. As directed by the Board, staff are currently reviewing the
options open to us that could facilitate studbook recognition generally while respecting the principles under which our registry has operated since 1888. One of
the options we will examine may involve reciprocity with any FCI member country registry. In order to explore that last option more fully, we would need to know what
the requirements of the FCI are with respect to the registries of member countries.
More particularly, how does the FCI ensure that the operating rules of the registry of each new member provide a reasonable assurance as to the accuracy and integrity of the registry and the pedigrees it issues?
The Canadian Kennel Club is incorporated and operates under the authority of the federal Animal Pedigree Act and of by-laws that are adopted by the members of the
CKC, subject to the approval of the Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food. In the conduct of its registry operations, the CKC must abide by the principles of the Act and the requirements of the By-laws. We also attach to this letter an excerpt from a
Manual issued by the responsible federal department that sets out guidelines for the recognition of foreign registries, including the criteria under which full, partial and conditional recognition may be granted.
We expect that a great many of the FCI members’ stud books are not recognized simply because the kennel club involved has not asked for recognition, perhaps due
to a lack of information concerning the procedure involved. If we could be given a list of contacts for all FCI clubs, the CKC is prepared to send a circular letter inviting those kennel clubs to provide the information that is required under current policy.
Upon receipt of that information, we would be in a position to respond to those requests on a priority basis.
While we have every intention of continuing to work on updating our procedures, we also have a responsibility to ensure that any change we make does not weaken the
integrity and value of the CKC registry and of the pedigrees it issues. We must also ensure that any revision to our procedures is compliant with national legislative requirements. This imposes certain constraints on us that other organizations may
not have to contend with. Turning back to the decision which your Committee felt compelled to take at its
October 2006 meeting, it has produced serious consequences not only for our judges but for breeders and fanciers, their gene pools and their dogs, in Canada as well as in FCI member countries. We trust the General Committee recognizes that CANADIAN KENNEL CLUB CLUB CANIN CANADIEN restricting the flow of international exchanges is ultimately not in the best interests of dogs. At a time where genetic diversity is becoming ever more important to ensure the health and development of breeds, any measure that restricts the free international trade of dogs is counterproductive and harmful in the long term.
From conversations that CKC representatives had with some members of your Committee and your Executive Director in Long Beach, California in late November, we understand that the General Committee is scheduled to meet in March 2007. By this letter, we would formally request that the Committee give consideration to a suspension of its previous decision on that occasion if not earlier. This would be a significant step in re-establishing a normal dialogue between our two organizations to the benefit of dogs and dog fanciers world-wide.
We thank you for your attention and. in closing, we once again apologize for the distressing lack of communication that apparently led you to adopt that decision. We
are confident you did so reluctantly having in mind the significant repercussions, both economic and personal, of this decision for so many fanciers both here and in
the countries you represent. We trust we can proceed to re-establish a dialogue between our two organizations and resume normal discourse as soon as possible.
Dwain McLean, Chair
Director, New Brunswick & Prince Edward Island
Lee Steeves, Director
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland and
Labrador
François-R. Bernier, Director
Québec
John Hodgkinson, Director
Ontario East
Kim Ramey-Leblanc, Director
Ontario North
Alan Bennett, Director
Ontario West
Allan Pepper, Director
Ontario Central
Geraldine R. Taylor, Director
Manitoba
John Werle, Director
Saskatchewan
Anita Cairns, Director
Alberta, NWT & Nunavut
Margaret Jones, Director
British Columbia Southwest
James Campbell, Director
British Columbia Interior & Yukon
c.c.: Yves De Clercq, Executive Director
Encls.