Elisabeth Torres, Global Animal
The American Kennel Club (AKC) has always portrayed themselves as an elite organization of people and purebred dogs based off the integrity of their registry, but the truth is a little different. Facts show that many AKC-registered dogs are born in puppy mills. A huge chunk of the money that finances the American Kennel Club, and an unbelievable number of dogs come from commercial puppy mill breeders.
Lilly perhaps had 13 litters of puppies during her time at Reedgate Kennels, a commercial breeding facility in Missouri, where she was discovered malnourished and with a rotting jaw. Photo Credit: National Mill Dog Rescue
According to Friends of Animals and multiple other animal welfare organizations, it’s estimated that up to 80% of the AKC’s annual income comes from puppy mills or “high volume breeders.” The AKC’s relationship with large commercial breeders is no small thing, it’s a vital part of their income. It is how they fund their Madison Avenue office and subset money lost on dog shows. In 2010 the AKC’s total revenue was nearly $56 million dollars, with over $21 million spent on dog events with a revenue of only $11 million from the events.
The AKC started in 1884 as an organization with good intentions by keeping track of and showcasing breed lineage. The AKC does take part in positive initiatives, such as supporting their Canine Health Research Center, fighting breed discrimination legislation, and providing lost dog recovery services.
The issue that remains is that the AKC still gets the majority of their money from high volume breeders and does little to tackle the national puppy mill problem. Small scale, responsible breeders are not the issue. As a respected and historic organization that carries so much weight in the minds of pet guardians, the AKC has the responsibility to hold themselves to a higher standard. ”The integrity of the AKC registry is the backbone of our organization”, the AKC states. Does that mean that puppies from high volume breeders are its backbone?
“Dogs are property. And we like to leave the option to the owner of the property, of the dog, with the breeder. It’s their decision as to how many intact females to own or how many litters to produce,” according to AKC representative Lisa Peterson. If the AKC is going to turn a blind eye and profit from animal cruelty, what does having an AKC-registered dog actually mean?
According to their website, the AKC “cannot guarantee the quality or health of dogs in its registry. A registration certificate identifies the dog as the offspring of a known sire and dam born on a known date.” So being AKC-registered simply verifies that the puppy has two parents of the same breed, even if both those parents are lying malnourished in their own filth at a puppy mill.
It should really come as no surprise that the AKC won’t vouch for your pets health. Many dogs from puppy mills have infectious diseases such as kennel cough, intestinal parasites, mange, canine distemper, and infectious hepatitis. Not to mention a range of genetic defects from overbreeding that can cause serious health problems and shorter lifespans. Because attention to the health of registered dogs is not mandated, some US breeders started their own databases unconnected to the AKC. When it was discovered genetic diseases reduced the average lifespan of Bernese Mountain dogs to seven years, the Berner Garde Foundation started their own database to prevent overbreeding. Many breed clubs outside the U.S. require extensive health testing of their breeding dogs. The AKC should raise the bar and follow suit.
The AKC abides by some standards, including only registering litters from kennels that follow the Animal Welfare Act guidelines mandated by the USDA. The problem is USDA standards are so low and so poorly enforced it means very little. According to the ASPCA, small scale breeders (50 dogs or less) who sell dogs directly to the public, don’t have to be inspected on licensed by the USDA. So if a breeder is USDA certified, it’s a good indicator they are probably a puppy mill.
The AKC reserves the right to suspend breeders for not meeting certain quality standards, and says on their website that they inspect over 4,000 kennels annually. In 2010 the Humane Society of the United States did a 17-month investigation of an AKC licensed kennel in South Carolina. The kennel was involved in bear-baiting competitions, an event where a captive bear with its teeth or claws removed is tied to a stake in an arena and attacked by multiple dogs at a time. The kennel was licensed by and operated as an AKC club, and took part in four official AKC events. After the HSUS presented their evidence to the AKC, they rightfully suspended the kennel. As an active AKC kennel, it’s puzzling this animal abuse wasn’t discovered or reported in one of their 4,000 plus annual kennel investigations.
As a respected brand, the AKC should do much more to protect the animals they represent. In its current state, the AKC makes it easier for large-scale breeders to profit at the breed’s expense.
What can you do to change AKC standards and help stop puppy mills? Do your research on the AKC before registering your dog. If you’re looking for a purebred dog, start at your local shelter, breed rescue, or small hobby breeders who abide by the ASPCA standards for responsible breeding. Twenty-five percent of shelter dogs are actually purebred and many rescue shelters specialize in rescuing dogs of a certain breed and finding them homes. Take the pledge to not shop at pet stores that sell puppies. If you’re a responsible, small hobby breeder whose dogs are AKC-registered, urge the organization to increase their quality standards and stop registering puppy mill dogs.
Let’s make the AKC name stand for something respectable again.
Note from the editor: This story was first published on June 25, 2012 and was temporarily taken down to make sure Global Animal’s editorial standards were met. It was republished on June 28 with several revisions.
More On Pure Breeds:
Adopt A Purebred Shelter Dog
ASPCA Pledges To Ban Puppy Stores
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I am concerned as a long time reader of Global animal as to why you would start attacking purebred dogs who are raised by show and hobby breeders who do the best job to take care of their animals. I find this whole idea of killing off the different breeds of dogs just as disgusting as puppy mills. We should be encouraging people to buy from good decent dog breeders who show and only breed to improve next generation after extensive health testing. They mentor new owners, help you to train your dog, and will take back a dog they breed for any reason if the new owner cannot keep it. In fact their contracts prevent these dogs from being put into the shelter system.
We don’t have enough of those people and here we are bashing them. Yes, the AKC may be registering dogs from large commercial dog breeders, but these breeders must meet USDA standards of care and the higher AKC standards. Its easy to come up with estimates based upon nothing. Many commercial breeders have their own registry because the AKC would not register their dogs or these commercial breeders did not want to be inspected by the AKC.
I don’t rely on people who are biased when it comes to estimates thats not good journalism. You must always check your sources. I have seen the AKC Health institute numbers and how much money they give to research on the health of dogs which the author fails to mention. I do not see the same percentage of giving coming from the HSUS nor from PeTA for the direct care of animals despite the fact the HSUS raises over 160 million dollars from people thinking their money is going to help homeless animals directly. What I do see is HSUS and others targeting rescues now as hoarders, and the best dog breeders are being blamed for the failing of the public to take care of their animals. We all know at least those of us who do real rescue work that the majority of the dogs that come into our shelters are there because they have behavior problems that if the owner had known how to fix in the first place these dogs would not be released to shelters. We also know and see dogs being returned to shelters at very high rates. That is one of the reasons I now work for a rescue group that retrains the dog before placing it in a new home. We also will not place a dog who has behavior that is unpredictable and untrainable. There are those kinds of mixed breed dogs because they were never any ones pet. They have been wild all of their life living in a pack. Some carry diseases that are dangerous and that was one reason I refused to work at the city shelter is because they did not consider it a problem to put a sick dog in someone’s home with children. This sorta thing will catch up to placing dogs from rescues and shelters because people do talk and they do spread it around when they find they have been treated badly by the city shelters.
As for the raided dogs another group all together. I am becoming very suspicious of these raids as lately we are seeing very healthy dogs being brought who are suppose to have been abused. What was the abuse you ask as you don’t see it in the animal. Your told the dogs did not have cold water or there was some feces in the pen. The dog does not smell, is not matted, has no sores and is not lame. So why were they taken? Feeble excuses are given, but this often turns out to be one of those media events or HSUS internet spy raids. Well, we have enough animals who need real care and these are clearly well cared for animals taking up needed spots for those animals in dire need.
This is especially true with Birds. I wish animal control groups and HSUS would quit raiding bird breeders because the majority of people especially animal control people have no clue how to care for these fragile creatures. Half of them die in the shelter due to feeding them the wrong food or mishandling them. Birds are not animals that can deal with stress easily. Also the volunteers don’t know anything about birds and they crush their bodies rather than knowing how to handle them properly. I am finding that many raids are unnecessary, some are, but those are clear abuse cases. Others seem to be for other motives such as getting even, or getting more donations as those always rise after a big media raid. Some people have been able to sue afterwards and get their animals back, but others not so lucky for them or the animals as too many die in the shelters. I know because I am the one who volunteers to check all local shelters and pull the pets we can rescue effectively.
I am not for any type of abuse and that goes for people as well. I read this article several times trying to see if there was any benefit to the information. What it does do is slant all information to make the AKC seem like they are not doing their job or are misleading the public. I feel the author is biased and is misleading the public. The AKC is a nonprofit that does actually support the Animal Health Research Institute. It keeps records on dogs which is a good thing for genetic issues. As with all endeavors people or systems are not perfect, but the author makes it sound intentional. I know for a fact that the AKC reports any abuse they find when inspecting anyone who uses their registry. They require standards better than the USDA. So they missed the dog fighting ring, but not many dog fighting people are going to tell you what they actually do. They tend to hide it very well. You have to spend months observing and that is where good trained policemen can do a good job. This is still America and you have to have proof not just rumors to convict people. I guess not in the author’s eyes whose research objectivity is lacking. This article does not offer useful information or help animals in any way. The author wasted good space in a well read blog that should stand for helping people help animals. Just think if she had spoken about all the help the AKC has on their website teaching people how to care for their animals that might have helped to change people’s knowledge base or given them a real good source for help and mentoring their pet training. I just think the editors of this web site should be above such catty useless stories.
DId you even read this article? Who’s attacking responsible “show and hobby” breeders? No one. The issue of this story is large-scale breeders and puppy mills, not people who actually care for their animals.
Lady you are insane.
1. Did you read this article?
2. Who the F is talking about birds here? oh that’s right, just you, crazy.
3. “The dog does not smell, is not matted, has no sores and is not lame. So why were they taken?” – did you go up to all these dogs yourself and try to smell them? I didn’t think so. And don’t be ignorant. How about I lock you in a closet and make you shit and eat in there and have babies constantly. Is that abuse?
4. What type of commercial breeding facility do you own, because I refuse to believe someone could just be so dumb.
Exactly!
Once again more hate speech. Notice the use of the word elite. The AKC has nothing to do with being elite it is merely a way for reputable dog breeders to know that this dog has been bred to that dog and so will carry these genetic traits or discovered health issues and avoid them. Back when commercial breeders sprung up the AKC tried to not register them and the courts made them register these dogs as they were a public entity. You know the little thing called rights. So the AKC stepped up their inspections and now can suspend breeders for abuse and misrepresentation of the papers. They are not allowed to do any more than that. So what happened the commercial breeders made up their own register. So get off the backs of the very people who provide this world with the healthiest and best dogs that people know how large they will and what their personality will be like and what they function best at in this world. These people have always done breed rescue because they love their breeds and don’t make money on them. We give to the AKC because unlike HSUS they actually do things that make a difference in the health and welfare of dogs. I am so tired of the propaganda put out by you new age idiots who think this world would be better without animals. Go find another planet to sit on. As a vet i can tell you the best raised dogs are by those who devote their lives to showing and breeding purpose bred dogs and cats. I have had it with this shelter dog adoption as 48% of these dogs get returned to the shelter after biting someone or killing someone’s pet. Most often they come out of these shelters with diseases that are contagious to human beings. If the shelters did as good job in mentoring new owners as show breeders do then you wouldn’t have such a high rate of return. This is the failure of the Shelter system. But the biggest failure of all is that HSUS is allowed to spread lies and to slander people and worst of all to tell people that they don’t need meat at all. They even tried to make vegan cat and dog food which I call the worst kind of abuse. This is a cult and spreading lies seems to be the norm for all of you. You are so immoral I don’t know what on earth will happen to our society when young people like you have no ethics and spread lies. Just what do you expect to gain from this other than getting people to hate purpose bred dogs and then what. How will that help the world of pets. It won’t it will only help to exterminate them which is what PeTA does and HSUS use to do until people stopped donating. HSUS gives less than 1% of 160 million dollars to the direct care of any animal although people think they are supporting the thousands of human societies that are not associated with HSUS. Why don’t you write about that young lady instead of lying about other people trying to foment hate.
Yes, vegan dog and cat food is clearly the biggest type of animal abuse out there. Forget all those puppy mill dogs being bred constantly and treated like dirt. Forget all the dogs used for fighting. Lets go after the people who make vegan pet food. Please crawl out from under the rock you are living under and join the rest of society.
If shelter dogs have diseases that are contagious to human beings -which sounds like bs to me- then so do puppy mill dogs. What type of vet are you? I would never trust you with my purebreds in a million years.
This article is so full of non-sequiturs that it is completely pointless. Of course the AKC doesn’t guarantee health! That is not what registries do, it is what vets do! What registries guarantee is registration and bloodlines! And 80 percent isn’t even close to the percent of AKC business that is generated by large commercial breeders, because very few of the large commercial breeders use AKC any more; they have gone to the new registries such as ACA, ConKC, APRI, etc, that don’t check up on anybody or verify anything and will register anything as long as you send money. A lot of the commercial breeders left because they wanted to avoid what the AKC does: the AKC actually checks up on people, and in fact it does a lot more than any other animal registry (any type of animal, not just dogs) that I have ever heard of – it is the only one I know of that actually inspects premises and paperwork and makes sure the dogs actually match their papers and that they are well taken care of. If the care and conditions or paperwork are bad, the breeder loses his ability to register the dogs through AKC for a length of time that depends on the situation, and many lose it permanently. None of the others do that. That is not the purpose of a registry, but the AKC goes above and beyond.
As for the constant, idiotic mantra “don’t buy purebreds from a breeder, adopt them from a shelter,” come on, use your brain! Think about what you hear before you react emotionally! Where do you think purebreds come from, and how many do you think will be available in shelters if breeders are forced to stop breeding them because everyone has jumped on the shelter bandwagon?
spoken like a true puppy mill breeder, love dogs. this article doesn’t put down quality breeders or purebreds, just puppy mills. the akc clearly cheapened their name by associating with them.
Could not have agreed more, Doug Anderson. No where in this article does it say “Don’t buy purebreds from a breeder.” The issue is large-scale/puppy mills vs. small, responsible breeders. Small breeders have the opportunity to breed healthy, well-cared for, and socialized animals, while large-scale breeders push out dogs to pet stores and individuals and families who unknowingly often receive an unhealthy animal. Not to mention perpetuating the amount of dogs in shelters. Do your research. You seem completely blinded as to the AKC’s association with puppy mills and the investigations into the organization since the 1990s. What a shame.
Rewritten some–any critical comments deleted. Still, all references and stats are to organizations following the animal rights propaganda mill BIG LIES, in support of the AR agenda working towards a meatless/petless society. No credibility in this article. Should be on an animal rights site, but then it’s truly *faux animal welfare*.
would believe it