Page 128 - THE SLOUGHI REVIEW Issue 15

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Letter from Prof. Dr. Helmut Quaritsch, President of the Fédération Cynologique
Internationale (F.C.I.) to Helly Vogt, President of the Breeding Committee, Bern,
Switzerland, regarding Dr Burchard's letter of 23 December 1985

FEDERATION CYNOLOGIQUE INTERNATIONALE (F. C. I.)
COMMISSION Du LEVRIER - Sighthound Commission
The President: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Helmut Quaritsch, Otterstadter Weg 139.

13-6720 Speyer, RFA
23 March 1937

Mrs Helly Vogt
President of the Working Committee
Breeding Questions
Emmengasse 9
CH-4249 Blauen (Berne)

Subject: Letter from Dr. Burchard dated 23.12.1986
Dear Mrs Vogt,
Please allow me to comment on the above letter.

1. it is clear from his statements that Dr. Burchard has not yet understood the basic principles

and characteristics of European and Anglo-Saxon dog breeding. In the FCI, KC and AKC, dogs
are bred according to ‘standards’. Dogs, that conform to this standard and inherit its
characteristics are standard-compliant and and ‘purebred’ dogs - in the sense of the
standard. What is ‘breed’ and ‘purebred’ depends solely on conformity with the standard.

The show judges recognised by the FCI, KC and AKC decide what conforms to the standard.

The inhabitants of Saudi Arabia may regard their sighthounds as "purebred" and as a single
breed. This is irrelevant for the FCI countries. For it may well be (is even probable) that the
bloodlines of the sighthounds in Saudi Arabia which are differentiated by the FCI as Sloughi
and Saluki, have joined together or, to put it more cautiously in cynological terms, have not
developed into the sighthound types (= FCI breeds) as in the North African countries of
Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, on the one hand (= Sloughi) and the Middle East countries up
to Iran on the other hand (= Saluki).