Good to see so much positive energy. On our first berner and deep in love we tell eveyone who asks not to get from our 'breeder' (whom we now know has at least 12 litters a year, but we didn't know before). To only buy from someone on the national assoc list, to check for health in the past - not easy when neither of us speak perfect french, but we can do our bit. Emma and tatty, France ----- Original Message ----- From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 10:24 AM Subject: Re: the dog on the mountain in Switzerland
> Doom, gloom, gloom, doom, gloom and doom. Yes, the breed has problems. Yes, they will get worse. But, we have plenty of choices. We can sit around and shout doom and gloom, but for what purpose? To tell people the breed is in trouble? We all know that already. We've known it for years. We predicted it. We saw it coming. And it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better. These are not news flashes. > > So what do we do? I am not a hand wringer, I don't believe in being depressed for no good reason. It's too early in the day for a good Cabernet, so I refuse to waste time shouting doom and gloom. It accomplishes nothing except to depress other people without fostering anything positive. > > I like to find productive and realistic methods to try to improve current conditions or to at the very least slow the rate of deterioration. For YEARS now many of us have been doing just that. The breeder checklist? I completed it in February of 1999. A list of Philadelphia area breeders willing to help educate newbies? I did that in 1998. Advertisements in dog magazines? I helped Lesley Rouillier set that up several years ago. A website to promote reputable breeders and help educate the public, thanks to Jim Barrett and Adam Conn and a tremendous group of other people, like Sherri Venditti and others (the consortium website), done in 1997 or so. BARC was established early in 2001 to try to keep as many Berners out of puppy mills as possible, thanks to Amy Kessler and a good many others. Lisa Allen did the first set of breed baseball cards in 1999. Fundraising and Joye Neff go together like hand and glove, she's been doing it for several years now. A better BMDCA Code of Ethic! > s? Worked on dilligently for years, thanks to Gail Vogel, Susan Ablon, and many others. It's not finished yet, but not for want of trying! A booklet on the breed for newbies by the Southeast Wisconsin club, an excellent tool. Lobbying, Dr Melcher, hired by the BMDCA, and has already done a good bit of work in the short time he's been at it. Berner-Garde in the early 1990's to try to share information to minimize genetic problems in the breed, thanks to the enormous efforts of Barbara and Martin Packard and a number of other people over the years. And this is just the short list of all that's been done. There are far too many other names and efforts to list them all here, which is great news for the breed, but my apologies to all of you whose names I haven't listed. > > We can continue to pursue educational opportunities. We can identify other opportunities and find ways to do the work. Rescue anyone? They're going to need more and more help in the coming years, now is the time to start gearing up! > > Or we can just sit around and moan about the current state of the breed. > > Me? I've got better ways to spend my time. Posters anyone? Baseball cards? Clip art? Health disks? Information? Photos to shoot. Money to raise. Articles to write, currently working on The Vocabulary of Cancer, then porto-systemic shunt, Hemangiosarcoma, Lymphoma, Fibrosarcoma, glomerulonephritis. Berner-Garde File Manager & documentation. Health Committee, Light One Candle board, Berner-Garde board. There's stuff that needs to be done, so I'll just keep doing what I can! > > Pat Long (& Luther) > Berwyn PA > ____________________________________________________________________________ ____ > Check any e-mail over the Web for free at MailBreeze (http://www.mailbreeze.com) >
