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To make sure you continue receiving AKC emails, please add enews@akc.org mailto:enews@akc.org to your email address book. June 2009
Director’s Letter
With summer just around the corner, some state legislatures are starting to adjourn and we’re beginning to see a slight slowdown in state-level canine legislation. With more breathing space, we can begin to look back over the activity of the last five months to assess what has been our busiest year ever. And although we’ve seen more anti-dog and anti-breeder legislation than ever before, we’ve also achieved more successes than ever before.
The AKC Government Relations department is proud of its successful legislative partnerships this year with a myriad of AKC clubs and state federations (For a brief summary of GR activities that have helped achieve these legislative successes, click here http://links.mkt2242.com/ctt?kn=14&m=2580470&r=MTUyMzYxMzgxOTQS1&b=2&j=NzM0NDM0NTkS1&mt=1&rt=0). For the AKC, success is defined as positive legislative outcomes that ultimately reflect our mission – “to protect the rights of responsible dog owners and the sport of purebred dogs and to positively impact legislation affecting all dog owners, responsible breeders and exhibitors.”
Legislative success is achieved using strategies and tactics that can vary with each community and situation. In many cases, the hardest and most effective advocacy takes place behind the scenes, in direct contacts with legislators, or supporting club members and federations with sample legislative language or one-on-one assistance. In other cases, it may mean talking points, testimony, legislative alerts, lobby days, phone scripts and media contacts. Some of our greatest legislative successes are those bills that never make it to the hearing or markup level. Others involve long, hard fought battles that end at a governor’s desk.
However success has been accomplished, it doesn’t mean it’s time to rest on our laurels. There are many tough challenges ahead, and the pace of lawmaking at the local and Federal levels will continue to accelerate.
If you have not yet had the chance to visit our new online Canine Legislative Tracking System http://links.mkt2242.com/ctt?kn=7&m=2580470&r=MTUyMzYxMzgxOTQS1&b=2&j=NzM0NDM0NTkS1&mt=1&rt=0 to view some of the 800+ state and federal bills we’ve been tracking and acting on, I encourage you to do so. I’m confident you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
Thank you again for joining our efforts to support the rights of responsible dog owners and breeders throughout the country. Please don’t hesitate to contact us personally at 919-816-3720 or doglaw@akc.org mailto:doglaw@akc.org.
All the best,
Sheila Goffe Director of Government Relations