There was someone missing from the first leg of the Westminster Kennel Club show last night. Some new dog breeds were added, but they do not offset a huge loss. The rescue and shelter dogs who need adoption were missing!
In other words, the dog that is most likely to look like the one who watched with you last night. [Disclosure, I watched from San Antonio with two AKC registered pet quality Norwich Terriers and two rescue dogs; and yes, special treats are always given during Westminster.]
Every year people watch the commercials during Westminster to see the tributes and appeals for dogs who need a home – or so this writer thought. It turns out there was an important group who did not like those ads, those whose dogs are in the show.
Pedigree dog food, which produced the ads supporting rescue dogs, was dumped in favor of Purina who repeatedly ran a music video, reminiscent of YouTube, showing all sorts of active dogs with the theme "your dog can be great." The ad is not designed to make you do some soul searching and find room for a dog needing a forever home. It is designed to congratulate you on already having a dog.
DogPress.com encountered outrage from breeders last year:
This year [2011], watching on big screen TV, most breeders were appalled at the message that took precedence over the decades of dedication represented in the big green rings of the Westminster Dog Show.
The spectacular achievements, the glorious coats, wagging tails, extraordinary movement and incredible examples of breed type were laid low before the sad eyes and heart-wrenching commercials for mutts. From the viewer’s perspective, the Pedigree Foundation made it seem self serving, selfish to celebrate a meaningless and expensive quest for ribbons when millions of shelter dogs are in such dire straights. [sic] . . .
I received many calls during the show, even a couple from my pet owners. “What is that all about?” and from breeders, outrage so palatable the phone smoked! By the second day my inbox was running over. . . . more than half echoed the anger and disillusionment generated by those Pedigree commercials!
DogPress went on to do a survey last year:
Should adoption commercials dominate the Westminster KC show? TheDogPress surveyed 19,000 subscribers:
Response was overwhelmingly against promoting adoption over purchase and mutts over purebreds. Hundreds were also put off by the bombardment of donation pleas.
19,000 surveyed and hundreds were off put? That is a fairly small number . Perhaps it is not how many they were, but who they were.
This writer always thought the Pedigree ads were a nice touch, a sort of no dog left behind.
It turns out that those in charge would not agree. Here it is right from the spokesman for Westminster:
"The feedback we got from our primary audience was that they were seeing commercials that made them want to turn the channel," Westminster spokesman David Frei said Thursday. Frei said he thought the Pedigree commercials took the wrong approach, backed by viewers who either muted the spots or flipped the channel and didn't turn back. Show me an ad with a dog with a smile. . . . Our show is a celebration of dogs. We're not promoting purebreds at the expense of non-purebreds. When we're seeing puppies behind bars, it takes away from that. Not just because it's sad, but it's not our message."
Now we have 6 hours of celebration of the top purebred dogs in the country with no mention of those thousands who will die the next morning - some of whom might have been saved had a voice spoken up on their behalf.
What is Westminster but a 6 hour commercial for AKC registered purebred dogs? Do they also have to have all the real ad time too?
And who is the primary audience for Westminster? There are 78 million dogs in homes. Go for a walk in most parks and you will see the majority are mutts and they are rescued dogs. Mr. Frei needs to go out for a walk, and not in his zip code.
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