Dog lovers are dog lovers, right? Eh, maybe not so much. Recent reports state that the powers that be at the famed Canine Oscars—the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show—have drawn a line in the sand and basically said they don't want pound puppies and mutt adoptions shown on purebred time.
After two decades of show sponsorship, Pedigree was terminated as a sponsor, due in large part to the company's pro-adoption commercials ("Help Us Help Dogs") showcasing shelter pups. The famed dog show begins today and runs through tomorrow in New York City, but dog-rescue advocates throughout the country are fighting mad. Officials from Westminster defend the decision.
“We want people to think of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show as a celebration of the dogs in our lives,” said David Frei, the club’s director of communications and the host of the show for over two decades, to the New York Times. He also stated to the AP: “Show me an ad with a dog with a smile; don’t try to shame me."
The Pedigree ads, one featuring David Duchovny, have been largely successful in raising money for homeless dogs. In 2007, Pedigree received more than $500,000 in pledges after its ads were broadcast throughout Westminster's two-day run on the USA Network and CNBC.
“People did not look away,” Melissa Martellotti, a brand communications manager for Mars Petcare US, which makes the Pedigree brand, said to the New York Times. “They were inspired to pick up the phone and make donations.”
She is also pointing fingers at the Westminster brass, saying they are against adoption in general.
“They’ve shared with us, when we parted ways, that they felt that our advertising was focused too much on the cause of adoption and that wasn’t really a shared vision,” she said to the New York Times. "[They] are focused on the purebred mission" and not the adoption of mixed-breeds.
No one is denying that the dogs shown in the graphic and reality-laced Pedigree commercials are in stark contrast to the pampered, exclusively bred, painfully maintained purebreds that prance around Madison Square Garden. But, say Pedigree supporters, people who watch the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on television are not always part of that purebred group. Rather, they are run-of-the-mill dog lovers who want to celebrate and protect canines of all classes.
"I really thought one of the finest things about Westminster, and one of the ways I justified attending and/or tuning in, was their recognition of the plight of the homeless and needy," said Dr. Valerie Macys, president and founder of the Cocker Spaniel Adoption Center Inc. "They gave us the best of both worlds by showing us the best of the best—the pampered, the celebrated, the beautiful—and then showing us another kind of beauty and nobility by promoting the needy and destitute.
"The interest and adoptions that resulted from those promotions speak for themselves. They were giving back. That will all be undone."
Last year, more than 3.5 million watched the show's two-day run. This year, viewers who tune in today and tomorrow will see "peppier, more cheerful," non-adoption-themed ads by the show's new sponsor, Nestlé Purina PetCare.
What can you do to protest this?
"Boycott the show," said Macys. "Don't attend. Turn in tickets. Don't participate if you are a breeder. Don't watch it on television. Make a public statement as to why you are boycotting. Write letters to the decision-makers and to the Westminster brass. Let the voices be heard."
Comments