Issue: 28/09/2018

Future of dogs at stake, say disgruntled members

The Kennel Club's new headquarters at 10 Clarges Street, London W1.  

Photo by Heidi Hudson and Kennel Club ©

In a week of fast moving developments, the Kennel Club Board and its 'top brass' have come under scrutiny like no other board or general committee in living memory in the world of dogs.

As we go to press, the KC Members who are seeking to requisition a Special General Meeting of the Club are waiting for the KC Board to give a response to their request. Apparently there are now about 500 members who have added their names to the list, with well over 400 people signing an online petition on change.org 

The Special General Meeting is being called to propose three separate votes of no confidence in senior KC Board Directors; Mr Simon Luxmoore (KC Chairman); Mr Mark Cocozza (Chairman of the KC Disciplinary Committee and the KC Finance Committee); and Mr Jeff Horswell (Chairman of the Kennel Club JCF Working Party). Reasons for the votes of no confidence are listed in general terms in a letter which reached Kennel Club members over the weekend.

We understand that though the KC Board has said that it is prepared to allow these resolutions to be put forward, it wants them to be incorporated as part of the KC's normal General Meeting to be held on November 6th. The requisitioning members have said that, to save money, they are happy for their requested meeting to be held on the same day and at the same venue as the normal General Meeting. They are, however, pressing for there to be two separate and distinct meetings with their SGM coming first, as they do not believe it would be appropriate for the Kennel Club Chairman, who is the subject of one of the no confidence motions, to Chair any part of the Special General Meeting where this is to be proposed; nor do they want Mr Luxmoore as Chairman of that regular meeting, to have access to the proxy votes of undecided members who might appoint the meeting chairman to cast votes on their behalf. 

At time of going to press the Kennel Club's reaction to this request has not yet been received.

SGM and Members

Meantime last weekend Mrs Meg Purnell-Carpenter, past Board member and well known judge, exhibitor and show secretary who is one of those asking for the SGM, wrote to Kennel Club Members explaining the rationale behind the request and the no confidence resolutions. Mrs Purnell-Carpenter was a Member of the KC General Committee and then the KC Board from 2001 until she retired last year.

She says that it is with great reluctance that the letter has been written but she continues: "A group of Kennel Club Members find it necessary to call a Special General Meeting of the Kennel Club to propose three separate votes of no confidence. We are unanimous in the belief that our historic Kennel Club is being wrested from us and it is not in the safe hands we need to guide us forward into the future. Never in the history of the Kennel Club and the dog showing sport in general, has morale been so low amongst the show going public."

She mentions that Caroline Kisko, for some years Secretary of the KC and who has been a strong defender of the good name of the KC and of pedigree dogs, seems to have been increasingly side-lined. OUR DOGS is aware that a new Communications Manager has been drafted in from outside of the world of dogs but he is currently away on holiday as this crisis unfolds.

Mrs Purnell-Carpenter gives the broad reasons for each of the three proposed votes of no confidence against Messrs Luxmoore, Cocozza and Horswell and says that she is writing because the requisitioners feel that at this stage Members deserve to see the first broad indication of the proposals they are making. She adds however that leading up to the meeting, they will be supplying a much more detailed outline of their concerns.

Dissatisfaction and unrest

Mrs Purnell-Carpenter's letter comments: "Over the past several months all three of the above-mentioned Board Directors appear not to have recognised the extent of dissatisfaction and unrest among Kennel Club Members in particular, and among the dog showing fraternity in general. Indeed, they have consistently been dismissive of the many problems, implying that they are merely the product of an isolated corner of the world of dogs in the UK, while in fact the discontent has been extremely widespread. That is why we feel obliged to take the unprecedented step of asking for a Special General Meeting to indicate the strength of feeling amongst those many of us who are otherwise normally very loyal Kennel Club Members." 

With an apparent olive branch directed towards the other members of the KC Board Mrs Purnell-Carpenter concludes: "We hope that fellow KC Members will join in helping us to get the many remaining well-intentioned Kennel Club Board members back on track and help them to take back control of our much-loved Club and hobby".   

KC letter blackout

In a counter move the Kennel Club Board has now also written to members explaining its position but apparently has marked its letter 'Private and Confidential', thus gagging KC members yet again from discussing the letter publicly or airing their views on it. 

KC Members are bound to secrecy by the KC Rule which states: "No member shall cause or permit publicity to be given to the press or television or other media concerning any Kennel Club matter insofar as it relates to the management of the Kennel Club, the proceedings of any Kennel Club Meeting or disciplinary proceedings brought or to be brought by the Kennel Club without the prior permission of the Board." 

Going forward and depending on the view of the KC Board and whether KC Members abide by this rule, it may be impossible for OUR DOGS to report in advance on the detail of the Special General Meeting, yet again contradicting the Chairman's often quoted words that things would be 'open and transparent' and secrecy would be swept away when he came to power. There has been much disquiet that exactly the reverse has happened in the period Mr Luxmoore has held office.

For that reason we are unable to give any information at this point on the content of the letter from the KC Board to the Members although it is believed to have been largely based on legal advice, given by the Kennel Club's legal advisors, Farrer & Co LLP who are located in Lincolns Inn Fields, London, an area synonymous with top flight legal firms. The company describes themselves on line as being 'synonymous with the highest quality legal advice and service" and the use of this company has raised eyebrows and comments on social media in that the Kennel Club's coffers are apparently being used to pay for high end legal advice. It is not known at this stage the extent of any of the charges will be from Farrer and Co, but members will surely be asking at the SGM and AGM next year what this debacle has cost the world of dogs in financial terms, never mind the reputational damage that it is inflicting on itself. One social media commentator on this very subject said, 

"It's the board that have taken legal advice in an effort to stop the S.G.M and have now spent considerable sums covering legal fee's of which the board will not have contributed one penny of their own money. The reason this saga continues falls totally on the complete boards shoulders."

Another stated, "Of course if the three people concerned had any true loyalty to the KC, they would resign immediately. Saving the KC unnecessary expense. Instead they are looking for every loophole and excuse to cling on. The last time The Club fought an expensive legal battle was to stop women becoming full members of the KC!"

It is believed that the original request to hold an SGM was blocked by the Kennel Club on legal grounds, under advice from its lawyers, but will not stand in the way of a properly worded and prepared request. The Kennel Club seems just to be delaying the inevitable in many people's view; from all the messages that OUR DOGS have received, it is clear that dog people are worried about the future of their sport.

Cancelled Question Time

There has also been much talk about the cancelled Kennel Club Question Time, due to take place in Manchester later in October. At the time of cancellation the Kennel Club said that it was due to 'circumstances beyond their control' which would have suggested something like a double booking at the Hotel in Cheadle where the meeting was due to take place.

In fact, in the Kennel Club letter, OUR DOGS are led to believe that the KC are now saying that they were actually more worried about the type of questions that might have been asked on the night which although might have been 'out of their control' certainly puts a different spin on the first reasoning.

Veiled threat 

OUR DOGS understands that after her letter was issued to KC members and after the KC had sent its confidential response, Meg Purnell-Carpenter received an email from the KC Vice Chairman Steve Croxford saying that it was: "with considerable disappointment that the Board has been made aware that you have circulated a letter to Kennel Club members in connection with the concerns which have also been raised as requisitions for a vote of no confidence in Simon Luxmoore Mark Cocozza and Jeff Horswell. As the Board is sure you will be aware, the letter has been given wider circulation on social media. This may have not been your intention, but it clearly was a reasonably foreseeable outcome." 

It said that the Board was disappointed that Mrs Purnell-Carpenter had sent the letter because she and her fellow requisitioners had been offered, via a slot at the KC's next General Meeting: an open and fair process to allow themselves as requisitioners of an SGM, the opportunity to articulate their grievances and allow the three individuals named to present their responses to such concerns and: "to give the membership as a whole the opportunity of an informed vote in accordance with the Kennel Club constitution and the Companies Act".

The email went on to say that Mrs Purnell-Carpenter and those who had been behind the letter had opened themselves to: "the risk of legal action" from those identified in the circular and that "airing the grievances in the manner you have does a disservice to your cause and can only damage the wider interests of the Kennel Club". 

The email adds: "There is, of course, no prohibition on you lobbying and rallying members to your cause." But it then goes on to make what many would think is the extraordinary claim that circulating a letter to KC members is: "a misuse of members' data as they have not consented for their contact details to be used in this manner". We understand that the only data used were the names and addresses of KC Members taken entirely from the KC Red Book which is a publicly available document and contains information which is certainly much used by members who wish to contact one another.  

The email concludes with what many would consider to be a veiled threat to Mrs Purnell-Carpenter as follows: "However, it is also necessary for the Board to fully reserve the Kennel Club's position in relation to the action you and your fellow requisitioners have taken given its obvious unnecessary nature and the likely damage they will have done to the Club's interests." 

Yet again, by issuing such a threat, veiled or otherwise, the current regime demonstrates its willingness to operate under 'a reign of terror' as recently mentioned on one social network group. The Board seems to fail to grasp that this bully boy tactic does not resonate well with the average exhibitor and in itself has been one of the root causes and reasons for the SGM to be called in the first place it would seem. Meg has expressed her thanks to everyone who has given their overwhelming support. 

Many fronts

Whilst the above process on the SGM is going on, other issues still need to be resolved by the beleaguered Board, namely: 

The St Bernard issue and the disputed figures claimed by the Chairman (see separate story) where no investigation seems to be taking place.

OUR DOGS is aware of a complaint against two high profile members of the Board by a non Kennel Club member.

Mrs Melanie Raymond has appealed her ban of eight months and three days and we await further details or outcome.

OUR DOGS is aware of a further complaint suggesting data misuse and regarding GDPR that has been lodged by a member who received certain telephone calls following the first request for the SGM. 

The Kennel Club Petlog service is apparently being challenged on a legal basis also to do with GDPR and alleged misuse of data that could have potentially damaging and far reaching financial implications for the Kennel Club. 

The ongoing staff situation at Clarges Street with people leaving and off on sick leave has reached an unprecedented level although management seem to insist that all is well and the staff are enthusiastically backing all the changes. Readers tell us of long delays on the telephone and reliable staff no longer in the positions where they previously had expertise.

Members must also ask themselves the question, is the Kennel Club and the world of dogs better off now than it was three years ago?

For OUR DOGS comments see our Opinion Column on page eight of this week's issue.