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AKCs Official
Position Against Federal Regulation
- Conclusion
The AKC has memorialized
its long-standing position that the
USDA should continue its current exemption
from the AWA of residential hobby breeders
who sell at retail. The AKC's position
was made clear and seemingly unalterable:
distinctions must be drawn between those
dog sellers who are regulated and those
who are unregulated based on qualitative
factors, not quantitative factors. Whether
the issue is numbers of breeding females
in the home or on number of sales, nothing
should be adopted that "reflects
a fundamental shift in regulatory philosophy."
20
In fact, the AKC has
long assisted the fancy in helping defeat
breeder licensing restrictions anywhere
that they were introduced in the state
legislatures and county and city councils
of the United States. As we will see,
the AKC's position is about to change
radically, as the AKC Board - for the
first time in the history of the AKC
- actually voted to support a breeder
licensing bill as the official policy
of the AKC. The camel's nose had rooted
under the tent.
~ ~ ~
20 Letter from Noreen Baxter,
AKC Vice President for Public Education
and Legislation, dated September 23,
1998 to the U.S. Department of Agriculture
in opposition to the Petition of the
Doris Day Animal League for rule-making.
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