Let me see if I can help sort this out.
Up until a certain point, Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs were considered to be normal dogs in the UK. They could be exhibited they could be bred, the UK KC even recognised them IIRC.
Then something happened and this was no longer the case. Fair enough now you suddenly find yourself with dogs which are no longer considered dogs. Why?
1) Expert witness (Keeper of wolves in the London zoo IIRC) who testified under oath that any animal with more than 1% nominal wolfblood should be considered to be a hybrid.
2) Re-evaluation of an article in the DWA regulation which states that an animal which can reasonably be confused with a wild animal should be taken for a wild animal.
(These quotes are not verbatim as since DEFRA redid their website I can no longer find the regulation in question)
Anyhow…
That means you cannot keep Wolfdogs in the UK unless you register them etc etc…
You are up against a regulatory problem. This is a question of laws, their interpretation and their application. That’s it. Bottom line is that is the only thing that matters.
You tried to contact the FCI, but they naturally did not help since it is their policy NOT to interfere with what goes on in member states (This incidentally is common policy for organisations such as the FCI)
You talk to DEFRA, exchange e-mails, get into all sorts of convoluted discussions… and suddenly someone from DEFRA gives you an interesting piece of advice namely:
Quote:
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I therefore suggest that the best approach for you might be to consider whether its possible to provide information to show that these animals are widely accepted to be domestic dogs, Canis familiaris, and no different from other breeds of domestic dog
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Which is sound advice as far as it goes… but how do you prove that a certain animal is widely accepted to be Canis familiaris? (especially since if you ask any expert they will tell you that now the nomenclature is such that Canis familiaris does not exist, but it is actually Canis lupus familiaris, so forget about going to see some expert on canid classification)
You won’t get anything from the FCI, they won’t accept photos nor stories, because to be honest those are relatively easy to come up with by unscrupulous people anyhow (you have to remember that DEFRA has to cover their back too, they have to respond to some minister or other) Ok so where does that leave us?
You have an opportunity to provide DEFRA with what they have asked for, and they have actually asked for documents, because that is the sort of thing which will stand up in court if needed.
Which documents would be acceptable?
· Pet passports. Above all others, pet passports would be the thing to provide them because they are specific for dogs (note, this was not the case for the old yellow vaccination cards) and what is more interesting they are actually delivered by different veterinary authorities, so getting a set of pet passports of wolfdogs (I checked the breed name is in there) from say Czech Republic, Slovakia (countries of origin), Italy, Germany, France, Poland (big countries in continental Europe, all of which incidentally have a significant number of wolfdogs in them). And any other passports you can get a hold of. This will give you international recognition of Czechoslovakian wolfdogs by veterinary authorities AS DOMESTIC DOGS, ie: Canis familiaris
· Export pedigrees (yes export pedigrees, not national pedigrees) The export pedigree comes in a form which is internationally recognized (and what is more is in several languages, including English) These are delivered jointly by the FCI and especially the national kennel clubs. Again, international recognition of wolfdogs AS DOMESTIC DOGS, ie: Canis familiaris
· Other certificates (dog show results, preferably from international shows, training certificates, in particular for working dogs such as rescue or police dogs… this sort of thing) Not nearly as convincing as the previous two sets of documents (as it is not clear who delivers them) but it remains a nice piece of supporting evidence for your case.
· If you ever got a positive reply from Nicole Wilde that is something which you might want to join to this too.
I suggest you get a set of these documents together, (Don’t make it too long, focus on the passports get a few pedigrees, if you can get some good certificates, preferably in English, that cannot hurt) make a dossier and sent it all to that chap with a cover letter and an explanation. If you like you can even make a statement about wolfdogs and have it be signed by however many people. Get it all together and sent it all together…
Don’t expect that lots of people mailing this chap from all over Europe will help you very much, on the contrary he is just likely to ignore an avalanche of e-mails as opposed to one complete dossier. DEFRA will not do your work for you, in particular the work of putting together the information and then interpreting it. You must do that and then present this to DEFRA. They are actually being quite nice in allowing you to still present data so far after the September 20th deadline.
Anyhow that’s my take on this. I hope this will solve this issue (though it is possible that you might have tried this already)
I might as well admit I have a vested interest in getting all this sorted out so we can go back to discussing wolfdogs on the forum rather than English laws.
Anyhow I hope all of this helps, and if you have already tried it in the past, then excuse my somewhat detailed explanation of things you already did, and then think of something else which could work.