World Dog Show: World Dog Shows: History, Facts and Figures
ARTICLE AND PHOTOS BY KARL DONVIL continued
the 2000 version in Milano, this was the opposite, one of the best WDS’s ever! Unfortunately, six handlers and 16 dogs died in a car crash while travelling to the show. 19,927 other dogs managed to come from 68 nations while in total 29,943 were participating that weekend in the main and/or the side shows! The main ring was impressive, large and nice. A Fiat Cinquecento was the big prize for the BIS winner. Indeed, the area around Milano is known for its car industry. On this show 392 breeds were shown, one of the widest spectra cov- ering almost all the recognized breeds. Indeed, Milano is still one of the best WDS so far. We note 2016 when the WDS should take place in Russia. While we all know that the canine world and the show world in particular counts a very high percentage of gay people and is very tolerant, people were afraid to come over to Moscow, known for its violence against gay people. But in the end this was not at all the case, far from that. In the days prior to the show, the police raided the Kennel Club’s office and arrested a few people. With the show coming on in a couple of weeks the FCI was alarmed and with the help of some experienced members from dif- ferent countries they managed to set up a splendid show as if nothing had hap- pened. It was obvious that lots of mon- ey was spent to turn this into one of the most prestigious World Shows ever. Large rings with tablets for the stew- ards, large flatscreens for the results
and announcements and camera’s in every ring, life streaming any judgment you liked. As if that wasn’t enough, the main ring was huge with the largest LED video wall ever seen and absolutely stunning entertainment on a moving podium, covering folkloric scenes from every part of the world’s largest coun- try, from Russian ballet over Eurosong singing to Asian acrobatic dancing. All this was in the same hands as the orga- nizers of the Olympic winter games in Sotsji. It was a real treat to the audience. The whole show was said to have had 100,000 visitors, a record for Europe. As you see, it was a long time since 2007 in Mexico that the WDS took place outside of Europe. For 2017, Ecua- dor was scheduled but an earthquake was not on the list. It was impossible to have the WDS take place in Quito and a solution had to be found. Ger- many offered to take over and the show moved to Leipzig. The European Dog Show of that year took place in Ukraine and due to the political instability and the hostility from Russia it was to be expected that many exhibitors would be very happy to go to Leipzig. The result was that Leipzig ended to be the biggest Dog Show ever held in the world. 24,692 dogs were entered for the World Dog Show and 31,115 dogs were present including all side competitions. The Leipzig halls were huge and so spa- cious that one did not have the impres- sion that 90,000 visitors came to see the dogs during the four days of the show. And notwithstanding the short time to
set up such an event, the show proved to be almost spotless, again Deutsche Gründligkeit, but with very little show aspect and entertainment. But Leipzig has put Crufts in the shadow as the big- gest Dog Show ever. This year the show takes place in Amsterdam again for the third time and I will report in depth about this show soon. The World Dog Show can be com- pared to the Olympic Games. It moves every year to another country and it is decided years before where it will take place in the General Assemble of the FCI. Candidate Kennel Clubs start lobbying years in advance hoping to be nominated. Often anniversaries are used as an excuse. Sometimes the lob- bying goes a little far. China gave free five star Hotel vouchers to all the mem- bers of the assembly and many saw it as corruption. But let’s leave that in the middle. The fact that dogs are still on the menu in China was on the basis of a huge crisis in the FCI. Norway, organiz- er of the European Dog Show in 2015, was leading a campaign against the FCI decision to have the WDS in China. It almost ended in a split and retreat of the Scandinavian countries and the impact would have been enormous as those countries are financially contributing so much that the future of the FCI was in danger. The quarrel was finally set- tled and the show will go on in China as planned. It is of course double. How can the FCI support a country where dogs are tortured and slaughtered for consumption, the FCI that stands or
2012 Austria WDS
2011 Paris WDS
2013 Hungary WDS
2014 Finland WDS
156 • S how S ight M agazine , J uly 2018
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