The American Kennel Club (AKC) is promoting several days throughout September as "Responsible Dog Ownership Day." What's wrong with this picture? Hmm, let me think … wait, I've got it: How can a pro-breeding organization promote "responsible" guardianship?

The AKC's main objective is to breed and exhibit purebred dogs—and for each purebred dog bred and sold to a family, a dog in an animal shelter loses his or her chance at a home. But that doesn't matter to the AKC folks, who believe that purebred dogs somehow matter more than their mixed-breed doggie brethren. Where have I heard this before?

Dogs, of course, don't care if they meet breed specifications—they just want a home! But the AKC demands that dogs adhere to strict breed guidelines even when they've been proved to cause medical problems, like with pugs' breathing difficulty. They oppose mandatory spaying and neutering laws—it would mean a loss of revenue—and they even oppose legislation to restrict the continuous chaining of dogs! For the AKC, it really is dog ownership, and they can't imagine not being able to do whatever they please with their property.

Well, I just don't see how the AKC is in any position to promote responsibility when it comes to caring for our canine companions. As long as nearly 4 million dogs and cats keep dying every year for want of homes, there is absolutely no such thing as responsible breeding. The best way to be a responsible dog (or cat!) guardian is to practice your ABCs—Animal Birth Control—and always spay and neuter.

Posted by Amanda Schinke

After Oprah aired a hard-hitting exposé of puppy mills last week, the folks at the American Kennel Club had the audacity to publicly praise the show, while they were presumably maneuvering frantically behind the scenes to make sure that the breeders they’ve been vigorously defending for decades don’t take a hit as a result. PETA President Ingrid Newkirk wrote to Oprah yesterday to thank her for doing the show and to point out that the AKC is no friend of dogs and never has been. You can read her letter here.

The hateful little press release from the American Kennel Club that I read today probably shouldn't have surprised me, given that these are the same people who think it's just a swell idea to breed and sell animals when there are 6-8 million homeless cats and dogs admitted into shelters every year. But this latest absurdity is over the top even for the AKC. The topic was what dog lovers should do about legislation in their states to protect their canine friends from being chained up outside all day—exposed to the elements, the boredom and anxiety that tends to accompany being tethered to a frickin’ tree for long periods of time, and God knows what other miseries lie in wait for so-called "backyard dogs." The AKC's message to their members? "Do nothing." According to their press release:

"With substantive animal cruelty statutes already in place, states simply need to enforce existing law in cruel tethering cases.� The already-existing cruelty laws make these proposed tethering bans or restrictions unnecessary."�

Isn't that lovely? We can all relax and let state governments enforce their own woeful anti-cruelty statutes and the problem will just disappear. The AKC even has the audacity to speak out against an anti-tethering bill pending in North Carolina, calling it "an attempt to intervene unnecessarily with tethering as a useful tool for confining dogs."� Having spent a good deal of time in rural North Carolina myself, delivering doghouses and straw to some of the countless dogs in that state who spend their entire lives languishing at the end of a chain, I can affirm with some confidence that the only thing tethering is a "useful tool" for is being cruel and ignorant. Which brings me back to the AKC. If you'd like to let them know how you feel about their twisted logic, you can contact their president, Dennis Sprung, at dbs@akc.org. And for more information about what you can do to help chained dogs, click here. Phew. Sorry for the rant, but seriously, WTF?