Where Does The Buck Stop?

By Amy Fernandez

If there’s one consistent theme running through this pandemic horror show it’s the critical need for inspired leadership. Nobody knows what the hell to do, how to do it, when or why. Essentially, at times like this, when hope and confidence are understandably hitting a low ebb we need to believe that things really will get better.

Yeah, this sport is just a little breadcrumb in this giant canceled feast of life, but it’s OUR breadcrumb. We love it and we’re not quite ready to let go.

Thankfully, CC is trying to keep the ship afloat. AKC is another story. We are all aware of their bombshell April 2nd announcement of mass layoffs. It outlined all the obvious reasons that every club and exhibitor already knows too well. In an attempt to ease the pain they described it as temporary, setting a timeframe for August rehiring, but covered their backs by adding “we will recall laid off employees as business needs warrant.”

No warning, no backup plan, just a suggestion to apply for unemployment. In other words, you’re on your own folks cuz corporate has concluded that it’s time to cut bait and run.

I take this personally–both as a lifelong purebred lover and as a lifetime NYC resident. Okay, maybe most of the layoffs came in North Carolina, but AKC is based in New York, and to put it plainly we could really use a break right now. It doesn’t get much worse than running out of space for the dead people here.

Everybody is rattled and justifiably so. Therefore, we are really relishing the accounts of business owners cashing in their savings, mortgaging their homes, and making a lot of other cash-strapped moves they personally DON’T need, just to ensure that their employees get through this mess.

And those human interest stories are not the exception. It is happening all over NYC and the country these days. The rest of the country may view those in NYC as ruthless. It’s true, you need a survivalist mentality to live here, but a crucial part of that is seeing the big picture.  And long range survival hinges on loyalty and commitment.

And that is my main point about this latest AKC debacle. Many fanciers are apathetic towards AKC. These days the organization is surviving because of our commitment to our breeds. So, in that respect, they are already on thin ice. And while I don’t need to emphasize this, half the country can relate to it as they spend weeks trying to navigate unemployment while the bills pile up. Maybe AKC can defend this as the fiscally responsible choice, but the optics are bad, really bad, and right now that is gonna weigh heavy on the sport.

History is my thing, (P.S: Hi Mr. Walsh, thanks again for flunking me in 10^th grade history!)

Maybe things suck right now, but it’s not AKC’s first time around this block. They weren’t exactly experiencing a wine and roses moment back in 1920. All things considered, the survival of corporate was way more dicey that year.

Just off the top of my head, let’s see–they still had no standardized show regulations, and I needn’t explain the endless fun percolating from that oversight. Every club made up its own rules, which didn’t matter that much since there were only 70 shows that year. And almost half their “member clubs” had quit a decade earlier, and they weren’t having much luck luring them back.

Hollis Horatio Hunnewell was running AKC, having succeeded his tyrannical predecessor, August  Belmont, four years earlier, mainly because he was among the few directors to actually show up for meetings, which is how he was originally roped into the VP job in 1909. Hunnewell’s health was always precarious, so I can only speculate that this experience didn’t help. He resigned at the end of 1920 and died a few months later at age 53.

Although decades younger than Belmont, historian John Marvin satirically remarked that, “Two decades of experience had prepared him for what must have been the somewhat daunting prospect of succeeding Mr. Belmont.” In reality, Belmont ‘s 28-year reign of terror was a hard act to follow. His vast personal fortune bailed AKC out of the red when he stepped into office; he supervised its incorporation (featuring a tabloid style lawsuit), finessed the acquisition of competing studbook registries, and founded the AKC Gazette. In the process his heavy-handed tactics had also alienated a tremendous number of purebred supporters, including most of the west coast clubs which had resigned in disgust a decade earlier and were still resistant to coming back. Overall, organizational progress had barely budged since 1884 primarily because they were so unpopular with dog fanciers. So they had 57 breeds on the books (lucky since everything was still lumped into two studbooks), a grand total of 23,000 registrations, 70 shows with entries rarely exceeding 300 dogs, and you can guesstimate the treasury.

But that was one hundred years ago. Daily sociological examinations are debating whether this pandemic is more aptly compared to World War II or the Great Depression–pick your poison. Broad or narrow, this situation defies classification. But from a historical standpoint, in terms of horrific disaster management perspective, let’s look at Harry Truman. He had the bad luck to fall right into both of those catastrophic global events

Lauded today, Truman was an anonymous politician who was perceived as inexperienced and woefully unprepared for the job he assumed in April 1945. To this day, historians cannot agree on exactly how he ended up in the White House, but there he was. During his previous eight months as Vice President, Roosevelt had told him nothing. His first glimpse at the agenda came that day and, even by current standards, it was really bad. Europe was verging on total collapse; Hitler’s damage was winding down but Stalin was just getting his crazy train on the road. Then there was Japan, and the teetering US economy. Okay, all that stuff is boring, but you get the idea.

Maybe I like Truman because he was such an avowed dog lover; he had so many great sayings, “If you want a friend in Washington get a dog.” His quotes are classics, but you know which one came to mind when I saw AKC’s big announcement… “The buck stops here.”

Anyway, I plan to stick around and I would love to hear from some of you. Let me know what you are up to in your down time and maybe share your thoughts regarding the future direction of our dog game because I really gotta stop reading about the Black Death.  We are going all medieval around here, roaring fire going all day, dogs all over the sofa chomping on greasy bones. I gotta get busy digging the moat!

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Posted by chesliepickett on Apr 19 2020. 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.