LOTS of news to report from the ABC this year:

• The ABC board has approved and recommended a YES vote on a new revision of the Boxer Standard that includes a description of our breed’s natural ear.
• ABC members will have another opportunity to vote on Limited Registration (with proof of spay/neuter) for white puppies.
• The Drawbridge Inn show site at Ft. Mitchell, KY proved to be suitable, affordable, and Welcoming (with a capital "W")! The board voted to extend our contract through 2006.
• The American Boxer Charitable Foundation raised nearly $30,000 for health research at the Annual ABCF Dinner & Auction!

AND…there was a terrific response to our FREE win/placement photo offer this year, so ENJJY all the win photos, the judges’ critiques, the Health Seminar summaries, the new Health & Research Committee health testing recommendations and the articles in this special ABC issue! Pat and I ENJJYED putting it all together. And remember, if you weren’t able to send your win and placement photos before we published the BU, we can always ADD them afterward!

In this issue you will find a sample "letter to your legislator" from ABC Pres. John Connolly, and a list of the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of the California legislators we need to contact to stop CA Bill #1548, to which CA Senator Figueroa added a last minute amendment that would ban ear-cropping in California…and might prevent exhibitors from showing cropped breeds in the state. There has been a lot written about this issue on the various Boxer e-mail lists, but to my mind, no one explained the need for opposition to this bill better than Ann Stone and Maryann Watkins of the BML:

In response to a European BML subscriber who asked why ABC Pres. John Connolly was so upset about the proposed cropping ban in California when most nations had already adopted cropping bans, Ann said, "John has seen us go from a society that says, ‘Isn't that illegal?’ to one that says, ‘Is that legal?’  That may seem like a small shift, but it's taken 75 years of eroding our freedoms to get there."

"We could live with uncropped ears – many of our new breeders are leaning that way.  But that's not what this is all about.  We are a country established and built on our personal freedoms.  There aren't many left."

Maryann responded: "Ann is right on target and said it better than I've seen so far.  BMLers from other countries may not understand the way some of us see this issue.  And the issue isn't cropping.  It's about US history, our founding, and what we're supposed to be about."

"Individual freedom/civil liberties was one of the two key issues leading to the Declaration of Independence and the resulting Revolutionary War.  Our Founding Fathers wanted to protect themselves and future generations from the lack (and abuse) of personal freedoms they experienced under British rule.  Many states wouldn't even ratify the Constitution until an agreement was made to protect individual rights, protection that is not included in the Constitution itself.  The result?  The Bill of Rights (1st ten amendments) speaks directly to individual freedoms and protection from government infringement of those rights."

"All one has to do is read some of the Federalist Papers and transcripts from the Constitutional Convention to see how important individual freedom was to the men who were charged with the enormous responsibility of creating a new nation.  Unfortunately, the intent of all that work has been undermined by recent generations of lawmakers and courts.  Yes, the country has changed, but the Constitution is elastic – it can bend with the times instead of breaking.  What's disturbing is that lawmakers began assaulting the Bill of Rights, too.  More and more, the 1st, 4th, and 9th Amendments (among others) are being eroded – or blatantly ignored."

"Many people in the United States have no problem with the government making their personal decisions for them.  I DO have a problem with that.  That's why I will do what I can to help fight the CA legislation.  If lawmakers in CA are so worried about cropping, there are other ways of dealing with it... but depriving their residents of making the decision itself is a direct assault on personal freedom.  We've already seen enough of that – we don't need more."

Enough said…

VZ – 7/14/04