Early history of the Seppala breed project
An International Seppala Association was always on the cards. It is part of a plan that was set in place in the mid-1990s for Seppala survival. At that time the Canadian Kennel Club had just refused to grant registered Siberian Husky status to the new Siberia import male, Shakal iz Solovyev. The Club was much more concerned about keeping its closed studbook closed forever than it was about the genetic renewal of a breed with a very narrow foundation and a sixty-year history of genetic attrition.
It was time for Seppalas to leave the CKC/AKC studbooks, that much was clear. The decision was taken reluctantly for Seppalas to seek their own identity, under structures where they could be free of the dangers of showdog breeding, assimilation by other bloodlines, and genetic death through terminal inbreeding depression. Permission from Agriculture Canada was sought to found an animal pedigree association in respect of a new evolving breed to be known as the "Seppala Siberian Sleddog." In 1997 that permission was granted, along with recognition of the evolving breed, and the Working Canine Association of Canada was chartered.
But the W.C.A.C. could operate only within Canada. It was recognised from the outset that an international association would soon be needed in order for the breed to have a worldwide existence. There were Seppalas in Spain, Seppalas in France, Seppalas in the United Kingdom, and Seppalas in the United States of America. An international breed and record-keeping organisation would be a necessity in order for the whole Seppala gene pool to be preserved together.
SSSD recognition and founding of the W.C.A.C. took a great deal of energy. Extensive documentation and photographs had to be produced, assembled, and submitted to Agriculture Canada. Articles of Incorporation had to be drawn up. Then, after the charter was granted, immediately a full set of by-laws had to be produced. No sooner than all this lengthy process was completed, the Y2K threat emerged, which was something that had to be taken seriously in such a place as the Yukon. Once the Milennium date had passed, we started to look for support within Canada for the Seppala Siberian Sleddog Project, and found very little. Two successive sets of W.C.A.C. co-directors failed to make a contribution to the association's maintenance. A website was built to publicise the project.
The ISSSC
In summer of 2002 we heard of a "Seppala Symposium" to be convened in Seeley Lake, Montana, U.S.A., at Douglas W. Willett's Sepp-Alta Kennels. It was advertised as being for purposes of discussing the possibility of a Seppala registry separate from the A.K.C. When forty Seppala enthusiasts assembled at Seeley Lake in August 2002, the reality turned out to be a new "breed club" affiliated with the Continental Kennel Club of Walker, Louisiana, a minor for-profit company that normally sponsored canine activity clubs for beagling and weight-pull events in the Deep South. As it was unveiled at Seeley Lake, the "International Seppala Siberian Sleddog Club" had already been founded, the SSSD registry with Continental was a done deal -- it was all cut and dried, and no one was allowed to discuss anything!
ISSSC was founded, without discussion, with the avowed goal of getting out from under A.K.C. registration fees, according to the article by Dr. Willett in the pamphlet handed out at the Symposium. But from the beginning it was a club for racers only! Elitist and exclusive in nature, its focus was entirely on heat-style mid-distance racing, and ISSSC insisted that Seppalas must be defined in those terms. A "founders list" of remote Seppala ancestors was published (which failed to include such important Seppala ancestors as Leonhard Seppala's "Scotty"), but the registry itself was keyed to the well-known Willett "percentage system" whereby the presumed Seppala content of each individual dog was calculated by reference to the founders list. Although Dr. Willett had repeatedly stated in the past that 95% was the lowest limit for true Seppala status, and that 97% was perhaps better for the more conservatively-minded breeder, the cutoff point for the new registry was set at 93%, and even at the lower figure, new changes to the percentage system were instituted so that Racing Siberian Husky bloodlines such as Earl Norris "Anadyr" strain were also considered percentage-Seppalas for calculation purposes.
The ISSSC version of the new breed bore little resemblance to what had already been in place for five years in Canada. New Siberia imports were not eligible and would be considered "zero percent." Racing Siberian Huskies were eligible, and many were credited with sixty to eighty or more percent-Seppala status. A new standard was written, half of which was plagiarised from the 1976 book The Seppala Siberian: A Breeder's Manual by J. J. Bragg. The new ISSSC website was adorned with photos downloaded from the SSSD Project website, copyright material used without asking permission (the same photos also appeared on teeshirts, sweatshirts and coffee mugs offered for sale by ConKC). A full-scale hijacking of the entire breed project was obviously under way; the "Seppala Siberian Sleddog" breed was taken over by force and pointed towards to a new destination. ISSSC founder Dr. Willett underlined the fact by assaulting Jeffrey Bragg physically in front of the assembled Symposium when he objected to the stolen photographs and displayed one of the teeshirts.
Efforts were made by Bragg to reconcile the differences between the original Seppala Siberian Sleddog breed, as embodied in the Project, and the newly-minted ISSSC. Negotiations were undertaken with Continental Kennel Club, but ISSSC resisted at every step of the way. ISSSC refused to acknowledge any prior claims by the Project. ISSSC refused any recognition to Siberia import stock. ISSSC insisted only they had the right to define what a Seppala was and to "determine the Seppala content of the dog." ISSSC issued bulletins and e-mail posts declaring that Markovo-Seppala (i.e., pure Seppala strain) stock was of no importance and no longer desirable. And several times they threatened Continental that if the least change or concession were to be made, "fifteen breeders would leave" their registry.
In the end, reconciliation was hopeless. By autumn of 2003 it appeared that an agreement might be reached with Continental allowing the acceptance of W.C.A.C.-identified SSSDs exported to the U.S.A. and other countries from Canada, at the cost of a parallel separate registration-number series clearly setting W.C.A.C. dogs apart from other ConKC SSSDs. Then at the last minute, negotiations were abandoned when it became apparent that Continental would not honour its tentative commitment to approve the licensing of an alternate breed club that would not restrict membership solely to racers, and that ISSSC was not going to accept as Seppalas any W.C.A.C. stock involving recent Siberia import lineage. The draft agreement between W.C.A.C. and Continental that was published on the ConKC website was never submitted for approval to Agriculture Canada and became a dead letter.
The reasons for I.S.A.
The founding of the new association is in no way "divisive." The reasons why a new International Seppala Association has now been founded should be readily apparent in the light of the facts we have narrated. The divisions were already there, created by the wildcat "breed club" ISSSC, which simply tried to hijack the Seppala Siberian Sleddog name and concept that were officially approved in Canada and had existed for five years previous to ISSSC's founding, while denying any input from the original SSSD Project.
The International Seppala Association is merely the association that would have been founded two or three years earlier, were it not for the intervening events involving Continental Kennel Club and ISSSC. The involvement of other breeds than Seppalas, too, was always on the cards. WCAC itself was conceived as a working-dog association that would perhaps in time shelter other minority sleddog breeds such as Chinooks, Mackenzie River Huskies, etc. The presence of other breeds in the single organisation will actually benefit everyone by tending to emphasise what these breeds all hold in common and by minimising factionalism and breed politics.
Genetic renewal for Seppalas, through the introduction of new stock from Siberia, must inevitably be envisioned by any permanent Seppala association. Anyone with in-depth experience of Seppalas will realise that the strain cannot exist forever on a foundation effectively consisting of five animals, with added attrition over the years through repeated genetic bottleneck events and random genetic drift. The marks of inbreeding depression are there for any experienced person to see.
A permanent, stable breed standard and genetic definition of the breed are also prerequisites for long-term success. The ISSSC has been through three breed standards in its short history; I.S.A. accepts the original W.C.A.C. standard as approved by Agriculture Canada. The Willett percentage-system has experienced the moving of its goal posts repeatedly since its inception in 1986 when it was first published by Dr. Willett in his book The Seppala Siberian. The latest version of that system now fails to make any rational case for distinguishing Seppalas from Racing Siberian Huskies: Anadyr, Igloo Pak, Kodiak and other RSH bloodlines can all be characterised as percentage-Seppala to a greater or lesser extent, and it is entirely a relative matter involving percentage numbers that have been massaged so many times over the years that no one is sure of the correct figures any longer. I.S.A., in contrast, still accepts the original definition of Seppala lineage as published in 1976, the only change being that instead of defining a registered Siberian Husky "subspecies", the definition now reflects an evolving breed.
Assimilation of Seppalas into the Siberian Husky breed, or into Racing Siberian Husky bloodlines, must be prevented if Seppala identity is to be preserved so that Seppalas can finally become a distinct breed in their own right. The ISSSC has fallen squarely into the assimilation trap, through their desire to increase numbers (the current claim is "over 500 dogs registered") by registering RSH cross-strains as Seppalas. The ISSSC now offer to Seppalas only the same deal as AKC (presumably at discount rates) -- eventual assimilation, such that no meaningful distinction will be possible between Seppalas and Racing Siberian Huskies.
Summary
- I.S.A. is necessary for Seppala genetic renewal, because neither AKC nor ISSSC will accept input from recent Siberia import stock.
- I.S.A. is necessary for the preservation of remaining Seppala lineage, because neither AKC nor ISSSC places any positive valuation on Markovo-Seppala bloodlines for conservation.
- I.S.A. is necessary for stability, because no other organisation will respect the original Seppala Siberian Sleddog breed standard and the original Seppala lineage definition.
- I.S.A. is highly desirable as a protective and conservation organisation not only for Seppalas, but for other minority sleddog breeds, all of which have problems quite similar to those that threaten the long-term existence of Seppalas.
