Virginia
Zurflieh, editor
2000/01 IN REVIEW
Despite our best efforts to
bring our readers discussion and debate on ever new and unique controversies and issues,
most boxer brouhahas in 2000/01 resulted from the "same old, same old."
Therefore, most of the articles in this issue address...well, the same old, same old. :-)
However, the photos in this issue are hot off the press from the ABC, so
we hope you will enjoy our feast for the eyes, as well as for the mind. If we
inadvertantly omitted your win or placement photo, or if you couldn’t get it to us by
the June 22 deadline, don’t despair -- BU is always a work in progress, and
Pat will continue to add ABC photos as soon as we receive them.
BOXER HEALTH IN AMERICA
During the last ten years or
so, American boxer breeders have become aware of how very limited our breed’s gene
pool is, and how contaminated by various genetic diseases it has become, as a result of
the intensive linebreeding and inbreeding that has taken place in North America over the
past 60+ years. Fortunately, the American Boxer Club responded to this problem with
alacrity, and in 1995, created the American Boxer Charitable Foundation (ABCF). Since its
inception, the ABCF, through various fund-raisers and outright donations, has raised $247,503
as of December 31, 2000. More importantly, $143,500 of that money has been made
available to the American Kennel Club Canine Health Foundation (CHF) for boxer-related
medical research. Since the CHF matches the funds that the Boxer Foundation gives them,
that means that the ABCF has been instrumental in funding $287,000 of boxer-related
research in only five years! The American Boxer Club also created the ABC Health &
Research Committee (HRC), currently chaired by veterinarian Dr. Wendy Wallner, to inform
and educate breeders on boxer health issues. The HRC’s most recent educational
publication, Genetic Conditions Affecting the Boxer, can be viewed in the April
‘01 issue of BU. Under the auspices of the HRC, Dr. Kate Meurs (Ohio State
University) and Dr. Bruce Cattanach (the UK) made presentations on boxer heart disease at
the 2001 ABC Specialty. There are summaries of those presentations in this issue. There
are also two new additions to BU’s Health Tested Dogs page -- check them out!
POLITICS AS USUAL...
As in many other parts of the
world, the controversies about white boxers, ear cropping and tail docking, showing
"plain" (solid) boxers, and hereditary heart disease continue to rage.
The good news is that the ABC
Judges’ Education Committee, chaired by Stephanie Abraham, has addressed the
confusion (in some judges’ minds) about plain boxers in a terrific new booklet
entitled Judging the Boxer, which has been sent to all AKC boxer judges. By all
means, ask your ABC member club secretary to write to ABC and request copies of it.
The bad news is that ABC
members recently voted NOT to allow AKC Limited (non-breeding) Registration for white
puppies (see our June Feature Dog -- the white bitch who was Obedience HIT at the ABC:-);
and a 1998 vote to make natural (uncropped) ears in the show ring a "deviation from
the Boxer Standard" continues to cause uproar and outrage into the New Millenium, as
several ill-informed AKC judges have chosen to show their support for the "new"
Boxer Standard by actually excusing good quality dogs from the ring (most recently,
the pointed dog, Red Dawn’s Rogue Wave, just
after ABC)! Hopefully, the ABC Standards Committee will present ABC members with a
natural-ears amendment we can all agree on, as soon as we can vote on the issue again --
in 2003. Tempus fugit, Standards Committee...
More good news: The most
recent ABC controversy -- moving the show site from the East Coast of the US to a more
central location -- was resolved (at least for the time being) when the ABC Board signed a
contract with a motel in Fontana, Wisconsin. Please see a feature on The Abbey at Lake
Geneva in this issue...and please join us there for the 2002 ABC! |
