As I was performing chores this morning my thoughts turned to the upcoming Westminster Kennel Club dog show on February 15-16, 2016. For me, it is disappointing that another year has rolled past without what I feel are necessary changes to the membership roles of the Westminster Kennel Club. If you are unaware, this venerable club is Men Only -- NO WOMEN ALLOWED AS MEMBERS. Yes, you read that correctly. This dog club is not the only holdover in the United States, but certainly is one of the most prestigious. Here is an excerpt from my article I penned in March 2015, titled "Musings".
This august organization’s ranks do not include women. Females are not allowed to be members, yet this kennel club maintains that it is “America’s Dog Show.” How ironic that this revered institution claims such lofty, patriotic status while simultaneously denying our sports gender majority — women — membership in their club. Consider these profound statistics from the 2002 Delegates Meeting Minutes revealing that 75 percent of AKC breeders and 72 percent of puppy buyers are women. Long ago, the American Kennel Club established that breeders, ergo women, are the backbone of the sport, but women are not welcome as members of several kennel clubs — only their hard earned cash...
That the majority of AKC dog show participants are of the female gender and are, still, taking a backseat role in the governance of this sport in the year 2016 should be alarming. That in the year of 2016, while humanity is pursuing deep space exploration and a colonization of Mars in the advent of a successful, historic landing of reusable rockets back on Earth, the Westminster Kennel Club still clings to its antediluvian traditions of banning women from membership.
How can such an affront towards women, our sport’s nucleus group, continue unchallenged and be celebrated annually? WKC professes to crown “America’s Dog” just so long as women who comprise 50.8 percent of the American population “know their place”. The Westminster Kennel Club is a gilded cage enclosing their male membership within the comfortable confines of antiquated conventions. Purposefully an Old Boys Club, they celebrate and preserve their gender bias practices. Insofar as women, well, women are only necessary and welcome when the club needs exhibitor participation.
While we celebrate the holidays and give thanks for all that we have in our lives -- ponder on this contradiction and dismissal of women's equality and our rights. Consider that if women took a stand against such blatant gender discrimination, we can make an enormous difference. We did so with the women's suffrage movement resulting in the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution ratification in 1920 guaranteeing all American women the right to vote. In the sport of purebred dogs, it is unjust that women have been continuously denied administerial duties of the American Kennel Club Board of Directors. An excerpt from my investigative article "Women in Leadership Roles at the AKC" follows:
Let us consider first the little known historic, consequential and stunning fact that AKC did not admit women to serve in the Delegate body until the 1970s. On March 12, 1974, a motion to allow women to serve as delegates was seconded and carried by a vote of 180 to 7.
Furthermore, that the administrative part of the AKC has just one female President over its entire lifespan since its formation in 1884, and to date, there has never been a female Chairwoman of the Board of Directors is simply a travesty of equality.
Before I sign off from this post, I also would like to remind people of what had transpired during the 2015 WKC dog show. Another excerpt from my "Musings" article.
Yet, unfairness or bias was not limited to the organization’s constituency roll. A particular incident took place during breed judging that reinforces the dog show community’s prevailing, cynical state of mind. No wonder fanciers are disgusted, throwing their hands up in exasperation. Actions that did not merely give an impression of but created a dense cloud of impropriety.
The ethical transgression transpired when a Judge presided over a Best of Breed assignment which included a dog this judge very recently used at stud. The litter sired by this entry reportedly was whelped already. Destroying any sense of impartiality, the judge proceeded to award this stud dog Best of Breed over the competition and also awarded Select Dog to yet another dog they previously used at stud as well! The basis of sportsmanlike competition is to adjudicate with neutrality, imputing ethics, honesty, and common sense. Instead, this incident exposes a lack of common decency and an illiteracy for the Rules, Policies and Guidelines for dog show judges.
This is an unambiguous example of Conflict of Interest. AKC dog show judges are responsible for situations such as this that require the judge to excuse an exhibitor for causes even known only to them and they were obligated to recognize that a conflict of interest existed. As for the exhibitor(s) who intentionally exhibited their stud dog under this particular judge? The responsibility for entering dogs that are ineligible or create a conflict of interest lies with the exhibitors, so says the AKC Rules & Policies Handbook for Conformation Judges. In fact, the Handbook states that awards won may be canceled, and exhibitors with repeat violations may receive reprimands or fines. Further exacerbating the situation, this competition was video streamed live throughout the world! A great many breed fanciers watched in disgust as the judging unraveled. It most likely has not nor perhaps ever will dawn on the judge that they would have gained a great deal of respect, if, in fact, they had exercised their right and performed their duty by excusing the violating exhibitors from the show ring. However, it is too late as now their repute is justifiably and seriously challenged.
As for the other exhibitor(s) competing in the show ring, in my opinion, they should have filed a complaint without delay with the AKC Executive Field Representative who was visibly in attendance. Until our sport participants slip their binds of submissiveness and possess the courage of one's convictions, violator's such as these described will continue to bully, unhindered. Here are links to both of my articles discussed above.
