Industry - Nancy Carey leaves CKC

In a tersely worded statement dated 19 September 2011, the Canadian Kennel Club (CKC) announced that Executive Director, Nancy Carey had left the Club.  Rumors of a marathon 'In Camera' session at the Board of Directors meeting in Toronto and the termination of Nancy Carey began to circulate through the industry on Sunday evening. The Board has re-instated Manager of Member Services, Leila Bahorie, as Interim Executive Director. 

Both the Minutes and the Synopsis of the Board Meeting are available online for CKC Members. However, CKC members on public groups and blogs are asking serious questions as to why these documents shed so little light on the reason for this sudden departure. Observers will recall the senior management position sat vacant for nearly 11 months after the departure of Joe Mauro in March 2011.  On 30 January 2012, when Carey accepted the role, the industry had great hopes for a turn around of club prospects and watched Nancy's leadership style and vision with interest.

Other concerns mentioned this week include:  Board of Directors secrecy; Lack of transparency and collaboration with the rest of the industry; Funding issues; and, The need to get back to what's important - Dogs.  The following quotation is representative of dialogue in the public domain:

"I think that this points to the fact that the whole current set-up of the CKC has to be re-structured.  That might take a while, but I THINK it is time for the members of the CKC to get control of the place and bring it into a responsible organization again.  It is lost in itself and has no vision for the future of purebred dogs or the sport of dogs.  We need a magazine and we need positive publicity about the activities of purebred dogs, we need to educate the public about the false claims of cross-breds, there are more activities than showing or obedience.  What about field trials, hunt tests, dock diving, herding tests, terrier tests, scent hounds, herding classes and on we could go.  There are so many things that can get the public's attention.  That is what the ckc should be doing for the membership.  Set up a separate registry branch and let them deal with that stuff.  The CKC should be blowing its horn for pure-bred dogs and the sport of dogs."

A contributing factor to club troubles may be the significant changes to animal sourcing and community service models which is being discussed by the industry at 2012 International Summit for Urban Animal Strategies in a few weeks. The impact of changing trends and behaviors is being felt across all sectors of the industry. It is certain that many of the current industry practices and approaches will require change.

PetLynx fielded YourSAY™Survey 2012.1 to measure the opinion of industry leaders just after the election of Michael Shoreman as Board Chair and the appointment of Nancy Carey.  This survey provides an opportunity for reflection now and may be repeated once again to gauge public opinion about this week's activity at the Canadian Kennel Club.

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