First of all, I am told I was wrong when I wrote that the Pat Laurans endorsement letter was cross-posted to all DJAA members. Secondly, there is some confusion as to whether or not Cindy Vogels may or may not have cast a swing vote. In the one election, Wayne Ferguson won, I am told, by a 12 yes, 5 nay, 2 abstention margin. On the same Directors ballot, I am told John Studebaker won by a 10-9 vote so that Vogels may or may not have been a swing there, however she voted. (I have no idea how anyone voted, since only the vote totals were told to me.) Nonetheless, my point was and remains that I do not think people should serve co-jointly on the board of AKC and CHF. There's just too much room for conflict, and I believe many CHF board members who are delegates let their AKC board votes be influenced by the internal politics of CHF and attempted to get other delegates to vote with them accordingly.
Now comes a prominent writer and former board chair advocating support for a slate based upon it being all female! That was sort of like his saying, when he was board chairman, that one of the reasons for AKC leaving NYC was because “no one in New York owned dogs!” That there are existing and/or proposed anti-breeding laws in North Carolina is no problem? Nonetheless, I thought talent and ability were the earmarks for board membership, not gender! If I had written the same thing in support of three men running, could you imagine that uproar!
Of course, the recall of those canned and pouched dog and cat food items, numbering in the 60 million area, was disturbing and depressing. If this wheat gluten is used in all these types of dog food cans, just imagine the number of pets open to the problem. I don't know what the answer is between the tainted corn of two years ago and the tainted wheat gluten of today, but for sure I think the FDA has to become more proactive in pet food approvals.
I see where AKC is thinking about moving to larger and more convenient quarters in Raleigh, North Carolina. Personally, I would rather have seen them move closer to the corporate headquarters in New York City. If one of the main reasons was to keep the impact on it employees minimal, I guess Raleigh was okay. But that being the case—and I hate to write this—why not combine the entire operation into Raleigh? I would prefer not to see AKC leave its home city, but if they decided not to combine operations further north, then I see little sense in not moving everything to Raleigh. Sorry, boys, that's my thinking! •