Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show changes sponsors/Please Read

[CSollers]

The more you know, the worse it gets. This was borrowed from another forum.

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary had this posted on their facebook page yesterday. Here is the article from the BF Blog. Westminster snobs snub shelter dogs | The Best Friends Blog

After 24 years, the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show has changed sponsors from Pedigree to Purina because the club doesn’t like Pedigree’s very effective, “Adopt A Shelter Dog” ad series. The ads, widely regarded as the most effective adoption promotions ever, have helped Pedigree raise millions of dollars that have gone to the cause of pet adoptions. The ads provided a redeeming feature the Westminster TV presentation
Westminster feels that the commercials are too serious for their broadcast. David Frei, head of communications for the club and the on-air voice of the show told the New York Times, “Show me an ad with a dog with a smile. Don’t try to shame me,” he said. “We told them that and they ignored us.” Frei added, “Our show is a celebration of dogs. We’re not promoting purebreds at the expense of non-purebreds. We celebrate all dogs,” he said. “When we’re seeing puppies behind bars, it takes away from that. Not just because it’s sad, but it’s not our message.”
In fact, the Pedigree ads have been celebrated because they don’t portray shelter dogs as victims, but as unique individuals and their tag line says it all, “Don’t pity a shelter dog. Adopt one.” Dogs are shown in a kennel environment but not behind bars.
Unlike some well known fund raising promotions that do show quivering and abused animals to milk people’s guilt, the Pedigree spots are a class act. The dogs are serious and their level gaze doesn’t impose guilt but rather ask the simple straightforward question, “Will you help?” The voiceover by David Duchovny is equally measured – “Shelter dogs aren’t broken, they’ve simply experienced more life. If they were human, we would call the wise. They would be the ones with tales to tell and stories to write.”
The dog show circuit, as wonderfully and pretty accurately lampooned in the film mockumentary, “Best In Show”, is a world of pampered excess, political maneuvering and money. I can attest to that fact because back in the mid 1970’s, I spent a few months showing a dog on the greater New York circuit for a friend who had purchased a pure bred dog and was obliged by the purchase contract to “finish” the dog, meaning establishing him as a champion so that the breeder could notch up another championship on her kennel’s resume. The dog, my friend and I soon tired of the nonsense, rewrote the agreement, and stopped showing, but the “Best In Show” portrayal is pretty spot on.
Westminster Kennel Club is sanctioned by the American Kennel Club. Their decision to distance from the reality of shelter animals is right in line with the AKC’s staunch support of puppy mills. They can be counted on to oppose any progressive legislation anywhere that seeks to curb the abuses of puppy mills, because the AKC makes it’s money by registering pure bred dogs regardless of their health the conditions under which they were bred or any consideration whatsoever for the wellbeing of the dogs. The AKC makes big bucks of puppy mills and the pet trade. They could care less that millions of dogs, many from AKC registered breeders are dying in our nations shelters.
The Pedigree ads were the one redeeming feature to a show that otherwise mainly drives the pet trade. Too bad.
Francis Battista
Co-Founder, Best Friends Animal Society

[Tinker's mom]

Wow, I had no idea the AKC would even think puppy mills were okay let alone not want them shut down. How disappointing. Once again it comes down to money.

[6 Beautiful Pugs]

Like the governing and certifying bodies of so many industries, what began with the best of intentions often outgrows it's purpose and becomes counter to the industry - becoming little more than a cash cow and a vehicle for good retirements for many people in the industry who otherwise would have faded off into obscurity.

Take care,
Lisa

[Wally 'n' Leto]

“Our show is a celebration of dogs. We’re not promoting purebreds at the expense of non-purebreds. We celebrate all dogs,”

Then why can't I get a special non-breeding, non-confirmation registration number to title Wally in obedience and agility? Because the CKC is as bad as the AKC and it's all about the money, politics and power, not to mention the discrimination.

I watch Westminster because I like to see the dogs, and as I have an interest in genetics I find it fascinating from a science/health vs aesthetics standpoint. But the whole KC thing makes me more than a little angry and more than a little sick to my stomach.

[sugarskullz]

“ But the whole KC thing makes me more than a little angry and more than a little sick to my stomach.

I agree. Don't even get me started! LOL