"It is very sad to see the propaganda against [PAWS]. Purebred dog folks should be embracing it as a method to clean up the well-known problems with disreputable commercial breeders and brokers, etc. and to ensure quality breeding and minimum standards of care for all purebred dogs. AKC's continued support and your messages to the fancy are to be congratulated. Thank you for all you are doing!"

"On behalf of the Vegas Valley Dog Obedience Club of Las Vegas, Nevada, I am pleased to say that at our general meeting held Tuesday, August 2, 2005 those present voted unanimously to support the Pet Animal Welfare Statute of 2005. We found the bill encouraging and a strong step in the right direction towards responsible breeding and sales of companion canines. We look forward to the final bill and its passage through the legislature. Please let us know here in the Vegas Valley how we can help enforce it and promote it. Thank you for your unending commitment to our canine companions."

"Many of the emotional condemnations of PAWS and of AKC's role reflects naïveté and ignorance of the legislative process. Bills are not laws when they are introduced. Bills are works in progress and the sensible and prudent action is to identify their weaknesses and work towards amendments that will make them into better laws if they are enacted. To be effective it is much better to work with legislators than to take a hostile and confrontational approach. That is what AKC has done."

The process seems to be working. The statement by Senator Santorum in the Congressional Record (July 27, 2005) makes it very clear that there will be amendments and technical corrections that will take care of a number of items, including clarification of the confusing language in the original introduction, exemption of rescue clearly, and allowance for sale of other dogs not bred by the hobby breeder."

We need to ignore the hype and separate fact from speculation, which has been overabundant and clearly designed to scare us. Let's wait until after the congressional recess and see what happens. We need to remember that making laws is like making sausage: very messy to observe, but the result can be quite tasty."

"The Board of Directors of the American Kennel Club, though not unanimously, has endorsed working with and through the activists in the PAWS movement. With our government lobbying agent, Jim Holt, we are becoming proactive in working with the federal legislators and the grassroots organizations across the country. It is too early to predict just what will become the final philosophy, but we do appear to be playing in the right league. We can no longer ignore the situation and hope that it will go away because that is just what it will not do. We must make the best accommodations for our sport that we can or we could be taken over by the federal government as is the situation in Canada and in Great Britain."

"I wanted to write to thank the AKC for stepping up, at long last, and demonstrating leadership in the effort to protect our purebred dogs. I have been an active member in the Bernese Mountain Dog Club and witnessed horrible deterioration in our breed due to importers and now, unethical breeders. I have been actively involved in following the debate on this legislation and have been amazed at some of the positions in the opposition."

"Paul Glatzer, of Smithtown, a staunch rescue supporter and sometimes AKC critic, is a PAWS advocate for the simple reason that he sees the need. Doing breeder referral for the AKC, he gets daily calls from owners of sickly imports.

'When I ask them to read me what the registration papers say, they can't,' he says, 'because it's in Hungarian.'"

"This is not animal rights fanaticism. It is the middle ground."

Everyone must read Ron Menaker's June Chairman's Report. In it, Chairman Menaker sets forth the most cogent and intelligent position that has ever come from AKC concerning legislation. He commits AKC to being part of the process, from drafting to passage to the writing of the regulatory language and he concedes, ‘there is no perfect bill.' Folks, that's today's reality. I applaud AKC for recognizing it and being willing to say it. We should all thank AKC for the effort they are making."

"GOOD JOB … on providing the relevant information in response to AKC members' questions or misconceptions."

"Thank your for the message. I have contacted my two Senators, Herb Kole and Russell Feingold and requested their support of the ‘PAWS' bill."

"As a hobby breeder, I am supportive of PAWS as I see it to be in the best interests of purebred dogs. Responsible, ethical breeders breed for themselves and to improve the quality and health of their breeds. Only breeders who mass produce dogs -- over six litters AND the sale of 25 puppies per year -- are affected by PAWS and these are the breeders who are often looking out for profits and not for their dogs."

"If reason prevails, and it yet may very well not, and PAWS is written into legislation and passed by Congress, the American Kennel Club could find itself in a place of considerable national influence as the champion of dogs in the United States."

"No legislation is perfect or forever. Even the Constitution has been amended. LET REASON PREVAIL."

"For over twenty years I have worked in conjunction with the AKC on various issues related to legislation/education. Based on my own personal experiences, interacting with AKC personally, I have complete confidence in their decision for continued involvement in PAWS."

"This is absolutely the best, very best information that has come out. It's all been good, but this is GREAT. PAWS (no pun intended) UP TO JIM HOLT."

"The proposed legislation…is the first in which the sponsors actually came to AKC for counsel before it was presented. That in itself is a breakthrough for us. Is it not better to be included in the discussions and refinements of this bill as it works its way through the House of Representatives than to be left out, as usual, and then be forced into court action to defend our positions.

The bill itself, if passed by Congress and signed by the President, contains no regulatory mechanisms. The rules to implement the legislation would come later, and will provide the best opportunity for AKC to serve the fancy by including language to protect out interests and the welfare of all dogs.

Those Delegates who wring their hands about being regulated should recognize that AKC has been regulating breeding practices for a long time. Through inspections, record keeping, the frequently used sires program and the increased use of DNA identification to verify parentage, we are all increasingly made to tow the line. Except for the commercial breeders, there has been little opposition to these restrictions. Most breeders, more than 90%, will never be subject to an investigation under the proposed legislation. So what is the big deal?"

"As Ron Menaker said in his press release after the Delegates meeting, you don't get everything you want, and this legislation is very much needed for the health and welfare of our dogs. I've read all the information against this legislation and disagree vehemently. We HAVE to get involved in the process, or the process will go on without us and it could have been FAR WORSE.

I will continue to work with Jim Holt and with the AKC to do everything I can to get this legislation passed."

"All of us in the sport should educate ourselves concerning this bill. Listen to all sides and then find out which arguments are sane, are based on fact, are based on what is best for the organization. Determine what is driving the various campaigns. Find for ourselves a position that is not fundamentally extreme on either end of the issue and is in the best interest of our sport and the AKC that governs it.

Today I am more hopeful than I have ever been that now, for the first time, we can say with pride that we do stand away from the other registries in one important and fundamental way: because we care about the dogs; we, even as individuals, are prepared to make some sacrifices. We have said so for years. Now we can mean it."

"[Jim] Holt has gone to great lengths to explain the present Animal Welfare Act, past history of other proposed legislation that AKC has successfully fought, and the presently proposed PAWS. He has been called a liar, an anti-dog proponent, and a traitor. Even though he has dealt with Washington matters on behalf of AKC and its fanciers on matters regarding Federal legislation for at least 20 years and is as much a dedicated fancier as the rest of us, these groups/individuals have vilified him. It seems as if every explanatory statement he issues is twisted out of context and/or labeled as mistruths.

Many of these group/individuals have hidden agendas. They want money, supporters, recognition and/or power. Some of them operate out of their living rooms. Others, that represent known entities, are conflicting organizations. Some are existing bodies that have gladly accepted AKC's good will and financial assistance in the past."