THE STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER CLUB
of the U.S.A.
| President Emeritus: Al Brown Phoenix, Arizona |
Secretary: Steve Stone Bellevue, Nebraska |
| Vice President: Joe Orday Sebring, Florida |
Treasurer: Sam Farris Birmingham, Alabama |
| Director: Sally Bichel Omaha, Nebraska |
Director: Pete Sparks Starke, Florida |
| Director: Frank McNolty Sunnyvale, California |
The SBTC/USA Club Bulletin No. Bulletin No. 16
February 4, 1972
A. Members please note that Al Brown has now assumed the honorary title of President Emeritus following his decision to step down from the active Presidency due to failing health. Vice President Joe Orday has pressing personal reasons for not being able to step into the higher office, so it is the consensus opinion of the Board of Directors to wait until the April-May elections to fill the vacancy.
B. Cohn Smith announces from his new temporary residence in Kitimat, British Columbia, Canada, that the uncertainty of his occupational tenure there makes it impossible for him to commit himself definitely to judge the previously announced SBTC/USA Show in late April or early May. Rather than have a judge with lesser credentials in the Breed, the show will be cancelled, but it is hoped that Cohn and his wife Kirsti will be able to make a judging trip to our shores soon.
C. Six new Members have joined our ranks since the last Bulletin. They are:
Raymond Brown, 4204-132nd Ave. N.E., Bellevue, Washington 98005
Dr. Margaret Origsby, 3256 Chestnut St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20015
Charles Hodges, 501 Williams Blvd., Kenner, Louisiana 70062
Tim Sluyter, Rt. # 2, Ashland, Nebraska
Justean Sparks, Rt. # I Box 30, West Liberty, Iowa 52736
Meridith Spiehs, 232 Madison, Elkhorn, Nebraska 68022
This brings SBTC/USA Membership to a total of 112 in fiscal 1971, the first ten months of operation as a Nebraska non-profit corporation.
The Board of Directors has agreed that the SBTC/USA fiscal year should begin on March 1st every year to avoid dunning Members for dues during the year-end holidays. Annual dues of $5.00 will be due as of March 1, 1972, for all except those new Members listed above. Please send to Treasurer Sam Farris or Secretary Steve Stone:
| Treasurer Sam Farris 2331 Fifth Avenue North Birmingham, Alabama 35203 |
Secretary Steve Stone 1006 Dogwood Circle Bellevue, Nebraska 68005 |
D. Another new item included in Club services is the SBT sweatshirt! They come in either light blue with gold flocking or white with red-crimson flocking that reads: "Happiness is a warm STAFFORDSHIRE BULL TERRIER puppy", the text of which is centered around a Stafford head. They are real eye-catchers, and the first batch went quickly. They come in all sizes (please state color preference) and are first-quality washable products, available for $5.50 each, postpaid. Members may still obtain the traditional Stafford collar for $8.00. Mr. Gordon's three books can be ordered from England via the Club for $5.00 (the new book), $6.50 (the encyclopedia), and $2.50 (the Foyles book). Subscriptions to The Stafford magazines, published quarterly in England, can be obtained at $2.25 for regular mail and $5.00 for air mail. If you wish any of these, send your money to Secretary Steve Stone.
E. Levy Jones in Minneapolis reports a smallish litter of two brindle bitches, both already spoken for, while Bob Sarafin in Cleveland reports a smallish litter of two dogs, one brindle and one red, sired by his Orday's Tombstone ex his red bitch Trugrip Big Nose Kate. Preston Cook's litter of five has dwindled to a pair of dog pups, one brindle and a fine all-white. Irma Rosenfield's litter of nine (!) has been whittled down to two, a fawn dog and a fawn bitch. Jim Gray of Iowa City reports a fine litter of two dark brindle bitches and three dark brindle dogs from his Bearcats Bellefire and sired by Rossisle Merely A Monarch ("Butch") of recent theatrical repute. A couple of other litters are scheduled and will be reported when "finalized".
F. A group of Eastern fanciers, the great majority of them Members of both the SBTC/USA and the SBTC/A, are in the process of founding an Eastern Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club, a local organization whose purpose will be to give Eastern Staffanatics a focal point of attention and help in their own area. This enterprise definitely fills a vacuum there, being as they are so far removed from Nebraska and California.
In all candor, it must be admitted that their decision to band together was spurred on by the methods employed in the recent (Jan. 1972) SBTC/A election in California. In them, nominations were accepted by the membership at large. But after they were in (five for President, six for Vice-President, etc.), a "nominating committee" appointed by that Board made its own selections and sent out a ballot that contained only the name of one candidate per office - and no space for a write-in. (A "quorum" of incumbent Californians was retained!)
The Eastern fanciers will meet at the home of Ed Rowland, 125 Split Rock Lane, Park Ridge, New Jersey, 07656, on March 15th to establish the Club formally. It will operate strictly as a local club but all interested Stafford persons are invited to join. The SBTC/USA greets this local enterprise with enthusiasm and hopes that others will follow suit.
G. Recent correspondence with Mr. John Brownell, Vice President of the American Kennel Club, stresses that no Stafford club has any official status with AKC. Further, the AKC does not appreciate the fragmentation of the SBT movement in this country and would like to see unification. At Mr. Brownell's behest, the first, second, and last paragraphs of his letter of July 16, 1971, are quoted:
"Dear Mr. Stone:
I was disappointed to receive your letter of June 23 and all the enclosures. We know that disagreements occur all too frequently in many clubs. It may be that if the Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club of the U.S.A. must have its troubles, it is better that they should occur at this early stage, when the club has hardly gotten off the ground, so that the members can learn from their experience and avoid repetition of the same kind of thing when the club has grown large and more important.
The American Kennel Club is most firmly convinced from long experience, that it is no solution for some of the members to go out and organize a second club of a similar nature, when differences arise within a club.
Of course at this stage there is no Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club that has any official status with AKC. From our point of view the most important function of the club has been the maintenance of registration records and Stud Book records. It would be most unfortunate for the future of the breed if you should start a separate registry, and if some Staffordshire Bull Terriers were registered with one organization, while others were registered with a different one. Frankly we think it is particularly inappropriate and confusing to start a new corporation in Nebraska with the same identical name as the corporation in California. I am quite certain that the American Kennel Club will not deal equally with the Nebraska organization, as it has in the past with the organization based in California."
The AKC viewpoint at that time was quite understandable, although in all fairness it must be pointed out that the AKC had never had to deal with the Californians in the same way that we had to. Nevertheless, several attempts---all futile---to come to an agreement were made by the SBTC/USA in relation to the SBTC/A in California. The AKC was advised of these efforts, and on December 28, 1971, Mr. Brownell sent a letter, the latter part of which is quoted:
"...there is no Staffordshire Bull Terrier Club that has any official status with AKC, and would not be until or unless the breed were accepted for registration and for regular classification at dog shows. As you know, we do correspond informally with clubs representing breeds that have not been admitted to the Miscellaneous Class at dog shows, and even with clubs representing breeds that have not been admitted to the Miscellaneous Class. In each case, however, we are dealing with a club rather than with some particular individual. We expect that the officers will change from time to time, but we look for continuity in the club itself.
We do appreciate the fact that you have made positive proposals for unification, and sincerely hope that this may be accomplished before too long."
The SBTC/USA was reorganized as a Nebraska non-profit corporation by the very persons who originally founded it in California because of the utter impossibility of "doing business" with the California group. In the ten months that have elapsed since then, the Staffordshire situation has been radically altered.
Anyone can plainly see that one strong Staffordshire Bull Terrier club is better for the Breed than two less-strong ones. Anyone should be able to see that the Breed cannot advance much further with the AKC until the situation is sorted out.
The SBTC/USA dedicates itself to continuing the work towards unifying the fragmented Staffordshire Bull Terrier movement in this country within a framework of genuine American institutional democracy.
H. Members will find three enclosures:
1. A printed page containing two photographs. The top photo is of Ch. Godfrey's Pride, Ch. Della of Impkin, and Ch. Godella's Pride---the first father, mother, son Champion trio in the breed. As noted, it is also a study in coat-color heredity. The sire is an all-white with black-brindle head markings, showing that he is really a black-brindle in color. The dam is a nearly solid fawn, showing that she has the factor for the expression of a coat color. The brindle is dominant for color and the dam's self-color factor is dominant. When linked, they produced a black-brindle son with nice white markings.
Somewhere in there, there's a lesson for certain breeds. The second photo is of the great Ch. Eastaff Danom. Rare is the Stafford in this country that does not have Danom anywhere in a five-generation pedigree---some have him quite close-up and many have been line-bred to this grand dog. Danom was the son of another great stud dog, Ch. Goldwyn's Leading Lad and Ch. Linda of Killyglen, a great brood bitch. Danom left his stamp indelibly on the Breed all over the world.
2. A letter from Ed Rowland to Frank McNolty in reply to the latter's missive published in the previous Bulletin. The letter speaks for itself.
3. A table of puppies' weights, plagiarized from the Spring 1956 issue of The Stafford magazine. Not every prospective litter owner realizes that he should buy or borrow a good set of kitchen scales to weigh the pups with systematically, as Mrs. Cassels did. A pup's weight is perhaps one of the best indicators of his well-being, and a pup who does not gain or even possibly loose weight needs help, possibly Veterinary help, FAST.
Click for Mrs. Barbara Cassels' Weights at Birth table.)
Ch. Godfrey's Pride (sire) - Ch. Della of Impkin (dam) - Ch. Godella's Pride (son). A study in coat color heredity.
Ch Eastaff Danom - Sire of eleven champions in England - six bitches and five dogs of all colors.
(Letter from Ed Rowland)
Dear Mr. McNolty,
I read with the greatest of interest your letter to the SBTC/USA, printed in the latest Bulletin. Some of your views are certainly provocative, but honest, I believe.
I could not resist the temptation to put pen to paper, and as a fellow member with some views of my own to make you aware of them.
Let me say that I am also a member of the Los Angeles-based club or "enigma" as you so humorously put it; however, before you crush my letter into a ball at this point and throw it away, please hear me out.
My credentials in the Breed are not lengthy compared to some I know, but I do have an overwhelming desire to keep the Stafford as physically and mentally equipped for his original purpose as is possible in this day and age, of people who think it sport to hunt a small fox with horse and hounds but consider it cruel for two fit matched dogs to have a five-minute "roll" as you put it yourself.
I have spent many years studying the pros and cons in my mind---by this I mean, should I accept the fact that the Stafford will go the road of other breeds accepted as "camp" in the show rings of the world, the Cocker being just one of many as you pointed out. The picture on the cover of Dog World was a good example of the depths to which that fine all-around hunting dog has been cast. One would need the hands of a faith healer to find the dog under all that finery.
The incident that made up my mind that this would not happen took place some six years ago when I had been in this country a little more than a year. I was fully settled with my wife and children in New Jersey and decided once more that I would like to have a Stafford, having had fond memories of them from England where my brother, Dennis, is a Championship Show judge of the old school.
Naive as I was at the time, I thought that the Stafford was recognized in this country and was all set to have my brother send one, then found out the truth. "Well, no matter," thought I after reading a little background on the AmStaff, "I shall own one of them and be able to show." I considered that the background of the dog was practically the same, so with visions of the proud fear-nothing Staffords I had known in England flitting across my mind, I contacted a Mr. Clifford Ormsby in New York state and bought a bitch.
Well, she turned out to be tall and rangy, not short and cobby, and her head was snipey instead of powerful. I forgave her, thinking, never mind the show ring, there is still the priceless temperament left. Boy, was I ever wrong. I kept her five years or so as a pet but had to put her to sleep when she finally fulfilled my suspicions when she ran from a large shepherd-mix dog that came into my garage one night and threatened the safety of my family. I had to kick that dog out myself, and that was enough for me, the straw that broke the camel's back, you might say.
All this you may find long-winded, but it was the factor that decided me to get a Stafford from England last year, and right proud of him I am. He is now 17 months old and a credit to the Breed. He is so tractable, unless threatened or challenged, that I am training him for Obedience.
The idea I would like to put to you is one which was advanced by Mr. Reid Randall in a recent issue of The Stafford magazine. His letter took the form of declining to join the California club, and he went on to tell why. He further put forth a view which intrigues me, namely, to hold some kind of open test, standardized, to prove at least in part the courage of any dogs that are to be bred from.
What do you think of this line of thought? Have you any ideas as to what form such tests could take?
I would agree with your views discouraging willy-nilly breeding in this country at this time, having seen first-hand in this part of the country already what the results may be.
I myself am waiting patiently for my brother to acquire for the me right bitch from England, but would not go so far as to suggest a moratorium on domestic breeding with just the exception of a few old hands as you put it. You know, an awful lot of "lemons" are bred and sold in England by "old hands", too.
However, I must agree with you that some of the rank amateurs in this country are unwittingly in the process of really dragging the Breed down, by apologizing for its past and by breeding specimens incapable of carrying out the original intent.
All this, then, is the reason why I intend to try to voice my views with the show ring fraternity: to try to help educate some of these well-intentioned but uninformed amateurs because like it or not all these dogs will bear the name of the genuine article, the Staffordshire Bull Terrier, and unless informed people like yourself do something about it and make themselves heard in the American show ring, these same misinformed amateurs will come to constitute the vocal majority of Stafford owners and, not versed in Stafford lore, will breed rubbish.
Why, indeed, calmly let the L.A. people breed ten litters to our one? Let me repeat, they will still be called Staffords, sold to the public that way, and eventually degenerate into lap-dogs. No, I say let's fight these people in the show ring with a better-bred dog, quietly confident in the knowledge that he'll come through when the chips are down.
Well, Mr. McNolty, as you can see, I am no writer; but please let me assure you that all my views are given with the welfare of the genuine Stafford at heart. I would be most interested to hear from you, so until then,
Regards,
Ed Rowland