Emerging Canine Elitism:
Let Them Eat Cake
Jim Engel April 2018
In the aftermath of the French Revolution the haughty refrain "Let them eat cake"
was attributed to Marie Antoinette, wife of King Louie the XVI and queen of France,
as evocative of the overbearing and callus attitude of the Ancient Regime,
the European aristocracy. The ambiguity between profound ignorance of the world
of the peasantry, that where there was no bread there was most certainly no cake and little else standing in the way of starvation, and uncaring disdain of the common man only served to harden the cutting edge of the expression.
von Stephanitz
Elite disdain has emerged in the American working dog world, dismissive comments that imply or even say that those distressed by the prospect of a hundred dollar surcharge are not really relevant, not worthy of concern, that if such trivial amounts are a hindrance those involved are not of sufficient economic and social status to matter. This haughty disdain is particularly egregious in light of the ongoing allocation of thousands upon thousands of dollars in European travel money for professional trainers and breeders, directly subsidizing commercial activity. Apparently there is plenty of cake money for the right sort of person, the insiders, the important people that so many want to rub shoulders with.
Any pretense of inclusiveness or amateurism, or real concern for the working culture, any serious belief in the IPO trial as a fundamental element of breed worthiness certification, is belied, brushed aside by this state of affairs. Indeed, the phrase "for the German Shepherd Dog" attached to the USCA moniker rings increasingly hollow, especially in light of the endorsement and promotion of the monstrosity that is the SV show dog of today. Perhaps all of this does not quite rise to the level of taking from the poor to give to the rich, but the distinction is becoming increasingly academic, for they are certainly onerously taxing the working class, the club level trainers, to aid and abet the elite commercial interests.
The fact that Marie Antoinette almost certainly never uttered the famous phrase, that she is portrayed by serious historians as a relatively benign and caring person— was merely in the wrong place at the wrong time—carries over to our current circumstances. We have had some bad people, and some good people grievously corrupted by power, but that is not what we have before us today.
We have collectively lost our way, come to see the national and international trial placement, winning at any cost, making the world team, as our fundamental reason for existence. Aside from the question of what "winning at any cost" has to do with sportsmanship and amateurism the preservation of the working breeds, the Americanization of the supply of worthy working dogs for police and military service and especially the club level amateur trainer have come to be dismissed by our leadership as irrelevant, idealistic or impractical goals that should not stand in the way of elite competition.
This hundred dollar surcharge may turn out to be a ploy, little more than a tactic in the ongoing game of USCA and AWDF politics, and I am not unsympathetic to USCA frustration and even anger. But they have been manipulated into an incredibly poor posture in terms of public relations, are grievously tone deaf to the picture they present to the rank and file of our working dog community. I was present at the creation of the AWDF and as founding AWDF secretary and president of the Bouvier club worked closely with Paul Meloy and the others; and for most of a decade this was an effective solution to the needs of the era. But the increasing irrelevance of the other working breeds, in my own instance a deep personal tragedy, has rendered the AWDF an awkward and increasingly irrelevant relic, seriously detrimental to real progress, in need of fundamental reform or replacement. This is coming to a crisis because of the over reach of the current AWDF leadership, but it has been a festering sore for two decades.
We need to return to our roots, take control of American working dog affairs and reestablish the amateur club level trainer and support of domestic breeding for police and military service as our foundation principles. Once again we come to the crux of the situation, that until we establish control of our own destiny, run American working dog affairs by and for the rank and file of amateur trainers and breeders, break the chains of corrupt European control, we will continue to stagnate. It is time for those who promote and profit from European domination and control to do it on their own dime.
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