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Date Posted: 14:32:28 09/23/02 Mon
Author: Peggy (crossposted)
Subject: AKC Chairman's Letter to American Airlines

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Crowley [mailto:JXC@akc.org]
Sent: Monday, September 23, 2002 9:04 AM
To: delegates@akc.org
Subject: AKC Chairman's letter to American Airlines



Mr. Donald Carty
September 20, 2002
Page



The American Kennel Club * 260 Madison Avenue * New York, NY 10016





The American Kennel Club



RONALD H. MENAKER (212) 696-8359
Chairman of the Board FAX (212) 696-8329





The American Kennel Club * 260 Madison Avenue * New York, NY 10016
AN OPEN LETTER TO AMERICAN AIRLINES FROM THE
AMERICAN KENNEL CLUB



September 20, 2002

Mr. Donald Carty
Chairman and CEO
American Airlines14760 Trinity Blvd # 2400Fort Worth, TX 76155

Dear Mr. Carty:

As Chairman of the Board of one of the oldest and largest dog registries and
dog-event sanctioning organizations in the world, I want to convey to you in
the strongest possible terms the objection of the American Kennel Club (AKC)
and the purebred dog fancy to American Airlines' recently announced policy
of refusing to transport certain breeds of dogs on the grounds that they are
"aggressive" and pose a safety threat to passengers and aircraft.

As you are no doubt aware, the AKC and its constituency has considerable
expertise in dogs, including the breed characteristics of the breeds
American is embargoing. We currently register more than one million
individual dogs and one half million litters of purebred puppies annually.
More than 14,000 dog events are held annually under AKC rules, attracting
well over 2 million entries, including all of the embargoed breeds except
"pit bulls," which, in fact, is not recognized by the AKC as a specific
breed.

I want you to know that the entire dog fancy, not just the owners of the
breeds American has chosen to embargo, are outraged about your misguided
action. Obviously, American's policy will impose an extreme and unwarranted
hardship on owners of the embargoed breeds. However, I have also received
literally hundreds of e-mails, phone calls and letters from owners of
various breeds--from Chihuahuas to Golden Retrievers--who object to and feel
threatened by American's action and have asked me to try to do something
about it. I am confident that you have received many such communications as
well.

American Airlines' assumption that certain breeds of dogs are inherently
dangerous or aggressive is demonstrably false. American Airlines is only the
latest in a long list of organizations, government agencies and businesses
which have considered identifying aggressive or dangerous dogs by breed.
Most either concluded that such a policy was groundless and never adopted
it, or found that such a policy was unworkable and abandoned it. The fact
that American may have found some support for its assumption in "lists" of
aggressive breeds does not make the assumption true. The overwhelming
consensus of recognized experts is to the contrary. No less authorities than
the National Animal Control Association, the American Veterinary Medical
Association, the National Animal Interest Alliance and the American Society
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in addition to American Kennel
Club, are on record as recognizing that identifying or defining aggressive
dogs by breed is bad pol!
icy.

No breed of dog is inherently dangerous. We know of no scientific or sound
actuarial data that supports naming any of the breeds embargoed by American
as dangerous or aggressive. Dogs' behavior must be evaluated on an
individual basis, by deed not breed.

American's policy of embargoing certain breeds as aggressive has no
relationship to the incident that gave rise to the policy. A dog's crate
failed and the dog escaped from the crate. In an attempt to get out of the
aircraft, the dog did serious damage to the interior of the cargo hold.
>From the accounts we have heard, the dog was anything but aggressive, and
was delighted to see the ground crew when they opened the cargo door. The
incident clearly resulted from crate failure, not the breed of dog that was
in the crate.

We applaud your concern for safety and naturally feel that every measure
possible should be taken to ensure safety, but that is why we are frustrated
by your lack of response to our repeated offer of assistance to review
airline crate standards, make necessary improvements, and advocate for their
adoption by the appropriate regulatory bodies. Strong, secure crates will
ensure the proper containment of animals while protecting the safety of all
passengers much more than will a subjective ban of various breeds of dogs.
We feel strongly that maximum safety will be obtained by ensuring that all
breeds of dogs are shipped in appropriate crates.

In recent correspondence, the AKC's President, Alfred L. Cheauré, has
offered our expertise in this area to American Airlines and stressed our
desire for open dialogue with you to address the issue. Your current breed
ban is a knee-jerk reaction that will prove ineffective, impossible to
enforce, and does not ensure safety of your passengers. Meanwhile, it
imposes an unfair hardship on tens of thousands of dog owners.


I hope you will quickly rescind American's breed embargo policy and work
with us to take a more well thought-out approach to increasing airline
safety in regard to this issue. Thoroughly researched guidelines on dog
shipment and crate containment will both ensure the safety of your
passengers and restore your dog-owning customers ability to travel with
their dogs.

Sincerely yours,
Ronald H. Menaker

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