A Reply To Vanity Fair

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76 – March, 2024

By Caroline Coile

“Her crime, in the eyes of these competitors, was owning a ‘colored’ Frenchie. (And yes, the language may sound disturbing – more on that in a bit.)”

That’s a quote from the latest AKC attack article in a mainstream publication, this time Vanity Fair. According to the author, Mary Pilon, who describes the article on her Facebook page as: “Murder. Money. Fur.,” it’s her “deep dive into the world of French bulldogs…”

Unfortunately, Pilon appears to have dived off the edge, or maybe hit her head at the shallow end, because I couldn’t quite figure out the point of the article, except to claim that the AKC is bad, the French Bulldog Club of America is bad, dog show people are bad, dog shows and breed standards are bad (and racist), and bad things happen at dog shows. Basically, unless you are a proponent of blue Frenchies, everything is bad.

It’s not Pilon’s first dog-show-bashing report. While Pilon writes about sports and money, her specialty appears to be integrating the two so that almost any sport seems dirty. She seems to have a special affinity for smearing dog shows. Her dog credentials are that she owns a “rescue puggle.”

Samples of her work include a New York Times article, “Safety Concerns Stoke Criticism of Kennel Club” in which she focused on two breeders whose dogs were seized by authorities. Pilon criticized the AKC for giving their “stamp of approval” despite the fact one breeder had only registered four litters with them but had something like 65 dogs. Big litters, I guess. Especially for Chihuahuas.

Pilon further stated that “the AKC is increasingly finding itself ostracized in the dog world” because of its “lack of inspections and that it often lobbies against basic animal rights bills because they could cut into dog registration fees.” She cited AKC’s stance against legislation banning stacking wire crates, or keeping dogs enclosed or tethered for more than 14 hours, or seizing dogs from people suspected but not convicted of animal cruelty, or opposing the number of intact dogs a person can own, as proof that AKC cares only about registration income.

In Pilon’s 2013 article, “Judge for Westminster Dog Show Dismisses Doubts About Fairness,” she casts aspersions on a Westminster judge and former handler who she stated “shows and judges dogs” as though doing both were a crime. She points out that the judge was Facebook friends with some of the winners he selected at the breed’s National, had co-bred with some exhibitors, or had shown dogs for others in the past. Further proof that things were fixed was that an exhibit was owned by the breeder of a dog this judge had handled in the 1980s!

Pilon seems to always opt for the sensational aspect. For example, in an interview, she states that, “It can cost a couple of hundred thousand dollars to get a dog into Westminster.” Really? Maybe they use an entry service with a really high service charge?

The Vanity Fair French Bulldog Article

Click here to read the complete article
76 – March, 2024

Short URL: https://caninechronicle.com/?p=282191

Posted by AnthonyA on Mar 8 2024. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.