Hunte cares about the dog breeding industry...
Over the last 15 years, The Hunte Corporation has shown how much it values its partnership with quality-conscious breeders by hosting Breeder Educational Conferences. This year, the two-day event on September 26-27 filled The Hunte Corporation headquarters in Goodman, MO. The theme, “Knowledge Is Power”, perfectly summed up the energy of the event. This year, it started off with a “bang,” drawing a record breaking crowd. Many vendors were overheard commenting on the “engaged and positive attitude” of the breeders who overflowed the expo hall.
This year’s agenda was focused on understanding all the challenges our industry faces when it comes to health, genetics, media and public opinion. Hunte’s driving purpose was to share the uplifting message that learning about the issues we face empowers us to overcome them.
On Friday, we started at the beginning with the topic “Whelping Management.” Leading the list of BEC distinguished speakers was Dawna L. Voelkl, DVM, Dipl ACT, of the University of Missouri’s College of Veterinary Medicine, who presented her expert knowledge with clarity and authority. Later that day, world-renowned breeder, researcher and author Dr. Carmen Battaglia gave the first of two seminars on “Breeding Better Dogs.” Dr. Battaglia’s wealth of knowledge is always a tremendous draw and this year was no different.
After a delicious lunch provided by The Heartland Chapter of the MPBA, attendees learned about regulations affecting Internet puppy sales and imports, as well as federal licensing and inspections issues from USDA/APHIS-AC’s Western Regional Director Robert Gibbons, DVM. The information-packed afternoon continued with a seminar on “Selecting Healthy Parents to Produce Healthy Puppies” by Jerold S Bell, DVM from Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Wrapping up for the day was Mr. Bob Yarnell, Jr., President of the American Canine Association. Mr. Yarnell provided valuable insight to the pet retail legislative bans and efforts spreading across the country, arming breeders with a clear understanding of how USDA inspection reports are being reviewed by the general public and presented to legislators promoting bans and restrictions to our industry. Breeders were encouraged to engage and provided with ideas on how to fight back.
On Saturday morning, Marsha Kelly, of MSK Ventures, Inc., delivered her presentation “Animal Rights Issue Management 101,” an enlightening short course on combating the radical adversaries opposing our industry by excelling at animal care. Shortly thereafter, Kelly also served before a packed house as the moderator for a question and answer session with Mr. Ed Sayres, the newly named President & CEO of PIJAC. Mr. Sayres’ history as the former leader of the ASPCA, and many years working in rescue and “no-kill” activities, had given some breeders and others in the industry cause for alarm. Mr. Sayres began with a detailed explanation of his career. He patiently explained his past activities and the background behind a variety of actions, including those targeting our industry.
Sayres also described his reasons for leaving the ASPCA and ultimately accepting the PIJAC position. To an attentive, courteous and standing room audience in the Hunte Learning Center, Mr. Sayres engaged every question put forward, answering with a straight-forward resolve, clearly explaining his past while sharing his goals and vision for the future of PIJAC. Stacy Mason of the American Kennel Club then put the final touches on a most informative day of speakers with her presentation “Health Testing Today’s Dog for Tomorrow’s Puppies.” It was well received by an extremely interested and receptive audience of breeders obviously motivated to make the most of every second here at the BEC.
As the conference was coming to a close, the still energized crowd gathered for the exciting business of the kennel make-over and other prizes. Over 40 breeders walked away with prizes at this year’s BEC. Two won $2,500 kennel makeovers and five more lucky breeders in attendance were awarded $1,000 kennel makeovers. Several more in the crowd were called to the techno-style main stage for a vacation package from Petex, a whelping box, a “KC colored” dog house, and lots of other custom built kennel products from the HunteKennels.com team. In addition to the prizes from The Hunte Corporation, the small army of BEC vendors also made generous prize donations that
created an atmosphere of excitement throughout this year’s conference.
At the end of this conference, Andrew Hunte gave his closing remarks. Backed by the multicolored light-show of the main stage, Andrew’s thoughtful words were not only focused on thanking all the attending breeders, but also the many vendors, especially the BEC featured sponsors, AKC and Zoetis. Mr. Hunte wanted the crowd to know that providing priceless knowledge from the nation’s leading experts has been the singular goal of the BEC for the past 15 years. His final closing comments summed up the theme ‘Knowledge Is Power” by expressing his sincere hope that everyone in attendance came away with information empowering them to make positive changes for continual improvement, not only for themselves individually and collectively as a breeding community, but also for the world to see the truth about the great work breeders do for this industry we all love.
