PAWS
The Pet Animal Welfare Statute

Introduction to PAWS

PAWS: The Amendment  

PAWS Made Easy

Why AKC's Support of PAWS is So Wrong (and What to do About It) by Cindy Cooke

Why Pet Lovers Oppose PAWS

What to do Right Now

They Can't Enforce PAWS, so Why Do You Care? by Genny Wall

Taking Back the AKC

UKC'S Letter to Dog Fanciers

Getting Your Club on SAOVA's Official List of PAWS Opposition

PAWS Links and Library

Please Support Pet Owners on the Firing Line!

A group led by Diane Amble paid the expenses for Lassie, 'Timmy' (Jon Provost) and Rudd Weatherwax, Lassie's trainer, to come to
Sacramento to testify against California's AB 1634, the mandatory spay/neuter bill. The total was over $3500. Diane
will take donations by PayPal at brianamble@sbcglobal.net

or send a PayPal donation

The Purple Apron Project

Grooming Aprons and Towels embroidered with 'Fight Anti-Pet Legislation. It Affects Us All"

Taking Back the AKC

Not a boycott, but a wake-up call

Dallas makes a statement.

Priority right now is defeating PAWS. But at the same time, we need to send a message to the AKC that supporting animal rights legislation is not acceptable. We need not only an AKC that doesn't try to kill off its own family, but also one that's willing to get its hands dirty and actually help us defeat bad pet animal bills. We need to take the AKC back.

We don't "hate the AKC," as some of its apologists say every time someone criticizes the organization. On the contrary, we love it enough to want to see it, and our hobby, survive. This is a company that is placing its own financial growth above the needs of its customers.

If we want AKC to survive, fanciers need to get its attention. And the best way to get its attention is to hit it square in the wallet. We do not need or want to have everyone completely stop using AKC services. But we should all cut back where we can and shift our money to organizations that are on the right side of this fight.

At every opportunity, let the AKC know where your money is going and why. This is our organization and it exists to serve the dog fancy, not to patronize or bully us, let alone to support our enemies. Remember, you're getting the message across that in choosing
HSUS and DDAL, they chose the wrong team.

The way the AKC should work is: The member clubs (that's us) elect delegates. The delegates elect the Board of Directors. The Board hires the president and other officers. The Board sets policy, makes all major decisions; the officers execute the Board-established policy and decisions.

In other words, we don't work for the AKC, they work for us.

The directors who supported the PAWS stupidity should resign. Top officers who backed it should resign or be removed. We need an AKC Board made up of the best people in the fancy, including some with strong business backgrounds. They should be people who work to help dogs, not simply to make the AKC richer, regardless of the cost to the sport.

If we are to have a strong and effective Board then we need sharp delegates who are able to attend meetings and keep an eye on what's going on, not just 'go along to get along.'

The AKC's response to the idea of a boycott has been "A boycott of the AKC will most negatively impact the dogs it exists to serve ." Fiddlesticks! This is a standard 'animal rights' tactic -- claiming that because you oppose what they want to do, you do not care about animals. It is shameful for our AKC to be using it.

Remember: This is not 'payback,' it is a correction, intended to check and call attention to incorrect behavior. As in dog training, it is designed to change behavior, not punish or
destroy.

Following is a menu of AKC moneymakers. Pick those you're comfortable with to cut and stop using those services.

Publications/Advertising

• Cancel your Gazette subscription; share with a friend if you can't live without it
• Don't recommend Family Dog to your puppy buyers. Give them a copy of Dog Fancy or your breed club magazine instead.
• Cancel your Awards subscription. Results are online anyway. Print them out if you need a permanent record.
• Don't use breeder online advertising or Gazette ads. There are plenty of places to advertise your litters online and in magazines without supporting PAWS. AKC's breeder online ads don't even allow you to include a link to your website! And Dog Fancy reaches more pet buyers than the Gazette does anyway.

Litter and dog registrations

• Register only half the puppies or fewer; the ones sold as pets don't need to be registered and AKC now adds a per puppy charge instead of charging one price for the whole litter.
• Register your litter with the United Kennel Club instead. UKC is the second oldest and second largest American registry. It has taken a very strong stand against PAWS and it still believes in serving members, not management.
• Dual-register with UKC and suggest pet buyers individually register with UKC instead -- a three generation pedigree is included with registration.
• Register the litter but suggest that pet buyers not individually register their puppies
• Tear off the front section of your puppies' individual registration applications (that's the part advertising the "value added" services) and ask your buyers to purchase the minimal registration – no "gold" or "silver" package, no dog care video, no Companoin Animal Recovery registration (see below).. Furnish pedigrees yourself and include your own dog care information. You can get free puppy booklets from many dog food companies.
• Just postpone registering the litter for awhile. The situation might be very different in a few months.
  

Dog Show/Performance Event Entries

• Do not enter shows of those clubs that have come out in favor of PAWS or refuse to take a stand. Let the clubs know of your decision with a polite note to the show chairman.
• Support the shows of clubs who are on the opposition list for PAWS, even if it means driving further or going to shows you don't usually enter.
• If you're not sure about a particular club, call the show chairman before you send in your entry. "I want to spend my money with the folks that are opposing PAWS; can you tell me whether your club has issued a statement?"
• Go to some UKC shows instead of some of your planned AKC ones. They take "day of" entries.
• If your dog is included in an AKC invitational show, send back the invitation with a note explaining why you won't be attending.
• Support other organizations that sponsor performance events. For example, instead of AKC lure coursing, go to ASFA trials. Instead of AKC agility, try NADAC or USDAA trials. The UKC holds excellent obedience trials.
• Take a break from competition altogether and spend some weekends with your dog doing stuff that doesn't involve a ring or field. The time off will revitalize you both, you might make new friends, and you can spread the word about PAWS to "civilians."

Credit Cards

• Cut up or at least don't use your AKC VISA card. This is a big income producer for AKC. If you get offers for the AKC credit card, use the postage paid envelope to send back a note about why you're not accepting the offer.
• Charge whatever business you do have with AKC on a credit card (not the club sponsored one, of course!) Every time they take a transaction, they pay a fee, so that's a little less going to the coffers.

Other Services

• Order pedigrees from pedigree services rather than AKC. Google "dog pedigree service."
• There are plenty of microchip and tattoo registries; it's not necessary to use the AKC CAR service, which, incidentally, is only a tag and a hotline now.
  Merial has a free tag-based recovery service at http://getmehome.us.merial.com/index.asp (Get tags with Heartgard and Frontline) and National Dog Registry has been helping owners find lost dogs since the ‘60s. They're a family business that took quite a hit when AKC got involved in dog-finding, and it would be nice to see them get some of it back
• Don't buy anything from the AKC online store!
• Don't DNA register your dogs unless you need to. AKC gets a sizeable markup.

Affiliates

• Don't buy from Cherrybrook through AKC and let them know why. Go directly to the Cherrybrook website if you need something from them and with your order, send a note about PAWS.
• If you must buy pet health insurance, don't use AKC's Pet Healthcare Plan. Drop Pet Partners a note at customer.service@petpartnersinc.com and let them know why you're using another company. Provide your puppy buyers with information about other plans and ask them not to use AKC's. Explain why. Google "pet health insurance" and give buyers a list of alternatives.

Some fanciers may be able to shave only a little from the total they send the AKC, others, maybe half. A few, perhaps, can do even more than that. If most of us cut back as much as we can, we'll get our message across.

We should not, however, expect AKC management to give up easily: When claiming that our opposition means we don't love dogs doesn't work, they'll move on to "We can tough it out." We must be ready for a campaign lasting at least six months and possibly several years. And every time you don't spend a dollar with AKC, drop Jim Crowley (corporate secretary) an email at jxc@akc.org, tell him what you didn't spend and why, and ask him to share your sentiments with the board.