© 1997, Herm
David, Ph.D., all rights reserved.
On April 25 the Philadelphia Inquirer's Karl Stark
was first to tell the nation about the AKC's serious legal
problems. The Inquirer is a kingpin in the Knight-Ridder
newspaper chain. Its K-R News Service made Stark's coverage
available to hundreds of additional media, both print and
broadcast -- plus Profound, a subscription news service
on the Worldwide Web.
Reproduced here are Stark's coverage and that of the Kansas
City Star and Our Dogs. The last named is a United
Kingdom tabloid weekly. Now in its 102nd year, Our Dogs
enjoys circulation to Dogdom worldwide.
Our Dogs front-paged the news of the dual state and
federal criminal investigations of the AKC on the same day the Inquirer's
coverage broke. The three coverages are, with the exception of
insertions within square brackets, reproduced verbatim.
Captain Michael Frazer was largely responsible for
achieving the ABC coverage. Delegate Robert Nejdl was the AKC's
first field investigator. He retired recently.
The AKC's statements have the earmarks of lawyer-crafted
instruments. They are replete with debater's techniques,
including presumptive statements. Example one: in response to
Nejdl's charge that a probable 50% of the AKC's registrations are
sour: "We all know that statement is clearly absurd."
If "we all know" it would have to be due to an
as-yet-unrevealed mass penetration of the AKC rulers' paranoia
about leaked information. Why else would a public service
organization with no trade secrets get deeply involved in
"sign here or leave our payroll or our board of
directors" non-disclosure pledges?
Speaking with a forked tongue
Example two: "We regret that ABC chose not to portray the
AKC we all know,..." and the remainder of that 68 word
sentence. When sentences get that long comprehension becomes both
confused and confounded. It's an old lawyers' trick. Impressions
may remain but instruction is defied.
The truth is that more and more of us are starting to
"know" more and more about the true character of the
AKC we once thought we knew.
In response to complaints Ken Hershey was, rather early on,
suspended by the AKC under his own name and one other. He
heedlessly, and unimpeded, continued his operations for several
years. Now-retired AKC Executive Secretary Roy Carlberg, long
after the fact, acknowledged Hershey had used as many as 150
additional identities.
Hershey was arrested by Captain Frazer. Lacking $2 million
bail money, he was sitting in jail and awaiting trial in January
1991. Only then did the AKC impose the suspension cited in
its missive of March 14, 1997.
The latest report we have on Ken Hershey is that he's back in
the puppy business and specializing in Australian Cattle Dogs.
Our Dogs is currently digging out, sorting out, its
own, in-depth, coverage of the AKC's very serious legal problems.