The Scandinavian canine realm is often held in high esteem among
other dog people around the world, from their breeding practices to the
transparency of their kennel clubs.
Unfortunately, I seem to have found out the hard way that they
have the same chinks in their armor as everyone else.
A few days ago I wrote on FB Mudi groups about a litter that
was created in Finland with a sire we co-own but we did not agree could be used
for this litter. Actually, we were not
even asked, it was all done covertly by the Finnish breeder and the other Czech
co-owner of the stud. I found out about
the litter from the FKK website shortly after it was listed.
Yesterday I found a discussion on the Finnish Mudi FB forum
about how the sire of a Finnish litter was not being named publicly and some forum
members wondered why this was? The
discussion took place in March of this year. Someone asked was this some new kind of
fashion? Others also asked what the
reasons would be for doing this as it was rather unusual not to list both
parents? Why the secrecy some asked?
The discussion went on to cover the need for transparency in
all things Mudi and surely the breeder had a good reason not to tell who the
father of the litter was.
Well the truth is, it was not for a good reason the sire was
not named and not only the breeders, but many other people were involved in the
secret keeping as well. It was shocking
to learn of the widespread deception. I thought something like this would not
happen in Scandinavia. I was pitifully
naive. People are people all over the
world, none should be thought of as better than others as everyone is still a
human underneath that proud exterior and our nature is to do what benefits us,
even at the expense of others or doing what is right, even those we put on a pedestal.
The reason behind this conspiracy was to prevent us from
contacting the FKK before the registration of the pups was complete, otherwise
they could cancel it. Not only did the two
breeders involved falsify documents, but the FKK broke their own rule by not
making sure all 3 co-owners of the sire signed the litter registration form,
when they had the proof in their hands, on the back of the sire’s
pedigree. The FKK refuses to take
responsibility for the falsified documents they failed to catch, even after the
deception was brought to their attention. Or was it
purposely overlooked for a friend? This
is the damage that gets done by one little lie that snowballs into a sizable
scandal. People see collaborators in every
corner.
I was shocked that so many other people knew what was going
on and did not tell me about it. Why
would so many become accomplices to something they surely knew was wrong. Even
the breeders knew it was wrong as they worked so hard to keep it a secret. How could so many people go along with
this? This is the biggest disappointment
of all. I am sure I counted some of
these co-conspirators as friends. This is
perhaps the most hurtful part of this whole issue to be knowingly deceived by
friends. I hope that at least some of the conspirators are ashamed to
have participated in this plot to defraud other people.
Finally, it became clear with this incident that the
Scandinavian superiority is not reality, they are just like everyone else. I really hoped they were the
light in the darkness we could all follow, but now I see they are also
following a light at the end of a tunnel they also cannot reach, just like the
rest of us.
So where is the world’s Mudi community to go from here…. we
need to realize, now more than ever, that we are all equally good and bad and no
one, absolutely no one, is doing a better job than anyone else and deserves to
be put on a pedestal. Perhaps we should
all strive not to make things better, but just to not make things worse, then
we can all move forward at the same pace via a shared path, not in separate directions. ‘United we conquer, divided we fall’, ‘there
is no ‘I’ in team’…. über corny sayings, but maybe it’s time to take them to
heart and do the right things or at least do no harm. Now that we are all standing on level ground,
I think this is something we can all agree on.
Thomas Inman
