Death of longtime Afghan Hound breeder, Peter Belmont

by Fran Reisman

This past weekend the Afghan Hound world lost one of its most ardent supporters. Peter Belmont, of Elmo Afghan Hounds. died in what police are calling a homicide.

Peter had been a presence in the breed for 50 some odd years. He bred many Champions, top sires and top dams. More importantly his stock started many successful kennels through the years. Peter believed in this breed and in recent years was heartbroken over what he felt was the demise of the Afghan Hound.

At the time Peter got started in this sport there were many mentors for him to glean knowledge from, and this is exactly what he did. Later he passed this knowledge on to those who would listen. In a conversation with a dear friend of mine we discussed how the people who started with Peter remained his friend through the years. Not many breeders can say that. He must have been doing something right, and something people today could take a lesson from.

Professionally Peter was an educator. He taught art at Wichita State University until his recent retirement. His artwork was well known and greatly desired by Afghan enthusiasts.

Sadly his death has brought out that big bad trait in dog people…gossip. I don’t know why there’s this contest in our sport as to who knows the most about anything first; whether true or not. In this case many stories have appeared on Facebook. As of yesterday, the Kansas City police have stated that no information about the circumstances of Peter Belmont’s death has been or will be given out to anyone at this time.

I hope my fellow Afghan Hound people will take time to think of the tragedy of losing one of our breeds oldest friends and while we’re at it say a prayer for all the children who have horribly and needlessly lost their lives last week. It has not been a good week.

Fran Reisman

Santa Barbara, CA

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=13395

Posted by amy on Dec 22 2012. Filed under Breaking News, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.