The Greyhound Club of America, Inc.

Sue LeMieux                                           (937) 652-3271
President
slemieux@ctcn.net

November 30, 2002

Mr. James P. Crowley
Executive Secretary
The American Kennel Club
260 Madison Ave.
New York, NY 10016

Dear Mr. Crowley,

I am writing in response to your letter regarding the new guidelines for
opening or closing an AKC studbook.  This was sent to us because of our 
original proposal requesting the closure of the registry to Greyhounds 
of NGA registration. Your letter, dated October 11, 2002, stated that 
the AKC Board of Directors would like to have the new guidelines 
"A, B, C, and D" addressed as outlined and returned to you by December 
10, 2002.  You stated that "the previously adopted AKC moratorium on 
accepting NGA dogs will continue until at least December 10, 2002, to 
give the GCA time to prepare and submit a request that complies with 
the guidelines.  If the request is received by December 10, the Board 
moratorium would continue until the AKC Board had the opportunity to 
review it."

I am writing to request an extension of the time allotted us to prepare
and submit the request referred to above.  I have listed 4 salient points 
to support the GCA Board of Directors request for an extension until 
May 1, 2003, to prepare the responses to the guidelines.

1.    Time Frame. GCA was given less than 60 days to complete our
proposal. This is 35 working days from the time I received your letter 
until the December 10 deadline.  The GCA is in the middle of a heavily 
contested election, requiring extensive support and documentation.  The 
deadline for the elections is also December 10.  Rose Mary Conner and I, 
who are preparing much of the stud book documentation, attended the AKC 
Parent Club Conference on October 25, 26, and 27.  Since Rose Mary was 
one of the Panelists on Sunday, she had to prepare for that event in the 
middle of our timeline.  Our Health Committee has recently been restructured 
and they are just beginning their contribution to our response to the
guidelines.  We need their active and expert help with large segments of
this proposal.

      Although we have been hard at work on this proposal, we cannot
possibly complete it, with all of the research and time it will require,
by December 10.  We estimate that we will need a deadline of May 1, 2003, 
to complete the proposal, given the level of detail and further research 
AKC requires.  We are working on this in good faith and would hope that 
the current moratorium would remain in place while we are preparing the 
proposal requested by AKC.

2.    Conflict in Guideline Objectives. The introduction to the
guidelines states that "AKC has from time to time received requests
from Parent Clubs to open or close the stud book to dogs with 
pedigrees from registries other than AKC in the United States. 
Guidelines have been established to handle these requests."  Upon 
reading the guidelines sent to us by AKC, it was immediately apparent 
that these guidelines are directed specifically to opening stud books
and the resulting increase in AKC registrations.  The measurement of
incremental registrations is at the core of these guidelines.  Closing 
a stud book will not result in incremental registrations; rather, its 
goal is usually registration restrictions and/or stabilization. 
A guideline proposal to close a stud book should not include increased 
registrations as a measure of its merit.

      Guideline C asks that we provide documented scientific evidence
that a problem exists within our breed, "that it is getting worse, 
and that there is a potential solution. Any studies cited must be 
credible and widely accepted." Our request to close the Greyhound 
stud book to dogs of NGA registry is based, in part, on our desire 
to keep our genetically healthy AKC Greyhounds, from being polluted 
by serious health problems afflicting the NGA dogs.  In order to
address Guideline C, we must work backwards and provide health
statistics for Greyhounds that are under a different registry.  
This is the part of the proposal that is taking the most time, as you 
can imagine that NGA is not willingly handing over documented evidence 
of health problems of dogs in their registry.

      Even Guideline D speaks directly to opening a stud book, not
closing it. "Any reason must include details on how the addition of 
dogs would improve the breed or address a specific problem."  By 
requesting the closure of the stud book, we are trying to avoid a 
problem, not cure one that already exists. It has been strongly 
suggested by several members of AKC that we are being set up for failure 
because of the compressed time frame and list of guidelines that are not 
appropriate to our situation. I would not like to believe that this 
is true.

3.    AKC Policy and "Schema". We have also been told that AKC is
uncomfortable with the idea of closing a stud book to a domestic 
registry and will not look favorably upon such a proposal.  If there 
is a better way of our resolving our very real issues concerning health, 
genetics, and sheer volume of NGA Greyhounds negatively affecting our 
AKC Greyhounds, we are open to suggestions.  
We would like to find a proposal that would meet both our needs and mesh
more transparently with AKC's normal course of doing business.

4.    Access to Information. We are not two registries working toward a
common goal.  The NGA registry has never offered reciprocity with AKC's
registry.  It is driven not by fanciers, but by a gambling industry. GCA
cannot expect cooperation in data collection required to address some 
of the guideline issues, specifically Guideline C, as mentioned above.  
We may never be able to obtain reliable information, but are working 
quite diligently toward that end at the present time.

Summary. GCA is acting as a real-life Beta test of these new AKC
guidelines, intended to serve as a corporate template for such issues.  
While we welcome the opportunity to do so, it is to be expected that a 
Beta test will reveal adjustments that need to be made.  The AKC has 
acknowledged that the guidelines were developed primarily for Parent 
Clubs wishing to open or leave open their stud books, and that GCA 
should answer the questions "backwards".  However, as per the above, 
we are finding the guidelines and measurements lacking in relevance 
to the issue of closing the AKC stud book to a domestic registry.  To 
date, identifying these incongruities and trying to decide how to address 
them appropriately, has taken up most of our time.  We should not have 
to be  doing this while our clock is ticking.

In summary, we the GCA Board, are requesting an extension for responding 
to AKC's Guidelines A, B, C, and D regarding the closing of our stud book 
to  dogs of NGA registration.  Because of the reasons outlined above, we 
feel we  need a new deadline of May 1, 2003, to complete our proposal in 
compliance  with AKC Guidelines.  We would also request that the Moratorium 
remain in  place at least until that time.

Should you have any questions or want to discuss this further for any
reason, either of us would  look forward to speaking with you.  
Thank you so much for considering our request and your willingness to
work with us on this matter of great importance.

Sincerely,

Sue LeMieux
President
Greyhound Club of America
4503 Church Road	Urbana OH 43078
slemieux@ctcn.net
937 652 3271