For the last several years, the membership of the Akita Club of America, Inc. (ACA) has been preoccupied with a very heated debate concerning the future of the breed.  On one side, a comparatively small, but highly vocal group, maintained that the new imports from Japan should be considered a different breed.  The other side believed the Akita is and should be one breed.  About the only thing everyone could agree on was that the issue needed to be resolved so we could get back to other pressing issues concerning the breed. 

 The American Kennel Club (AKC) suggested that the ACA conduct a straw poll to determine whether the membership had enough interest in splitting the breed before devoting the time and effort necessary to develop a full-blown detailed proposal.  AKC noted that such a proposal would have to include a standard for the “new breed” and requisite changes to the existing standard to exclude the “new breed.”  AKC further noted that changes to standards require a 2/3 majority of the voting membership.  The straw poll, therefore, would have to demonstrate a very strong majority in favor of splitting the breed for the ACA to move to the proposal development stage. 

The ACA conducted the straw poll in July, 1999. Voter turnout was extremely high: 77% (587 voted out of 759 eligible voters).  A resounding 57% majority of ACA members (333 out of 587) said they wanted the Akita to remain one breed in the United States.  This majority is even more significant in light of the fact that ratification of a split, the new standard, and whatever changes to the standard it might entail would require a 2/3 majority of those voting.  The 43% in support of a split fell 24% short of that mark. 

Despite the membership’s insistence that the Akita remain one breed, proponents of the split have vowed to continue their efforts.  Hoping to find a more receptive audience and to put pressure on opposition to a split, these people have now decided to target judges for “education.” 

Reportedly, they are sending out copies of a book with the Japan Kennel Club’s (JKC) current interpretation of the breed’s history.  Accompanying this book may be material with arguments about why some feel a split is necessary.  Articles to this point have and will appear in dog publications. 

Until now, those of us who opposed a split have confined the direction of our discussions to the ACA membership.  We saw no reason to burden a more public forum with what is essentially a matter of internal politics in a national breed club.  Since the split supporters have begun trying to influence judges to look at some Akitas as more deserving and more typical than others, we feel the time has come for us to speak to a larger audience. 

CONTACT US?  Click here if you have questions or comments.

copyright@1999, One Akita
Updated 9/9/99
http://bigfoot.com/~oneakita