Page 33 - The Sloughi Review - Issue 2 - Final Copy

T H E S L O U G H I R E V I E W
Within the UICL there was no longer one
united front towards the outside world, no
decisions were taken. The organization
began to fall apart and in 1991 there was
both a FCI European race in Oude Pekela
(Netherlands) and a UICL European race in
Awans (Belgium), which was, seen from
both sides, an impossible situation. If I
remember correctly, there was also a FCI
world racing championship held in
Hildesheim (Germany) that same year but I
cannot find any proof of that in the
documents. In 1991, it was the end for the
UICL, that is for sure.
It is told that the sighthound clubs from
Belgium and France, being founders of the
UICL, stood up against the order of their
national kennel clubs to leave the UICL.
Furthermore, the UICL was brought before
the court because of its decisions under
the auspices of the UICL president Harry
Zuber with help of the secretary-general
Jean-Jacques Charles, both from
Switzerland. After the process the verdict
was that the decisions of the FCI were
unlawful but it was a Pyrrhic-victory.
Nobody in a wide circle had the courage or
the spirit to start all over again from the
beginning, cooperating with the FCI and
putting a lot of energy and time in that.
3 3
Justice was done in the eyes of many but
no one felt responsible to pick up the
thread. It affected both initiators also;
Harry Zuber was banned from judging
for many years.
The task of the CdL was diminished by
the FCI board; they were only allowed to
deal with cases concerning track racing
and coursing, the name was changed to
“Commission for Sighthound Races”. All
the subjects concerning breed and show
aspects had to be dealt with by the
Standard committee and the Show
committee of the FCI. Those committees
were already dealing with these subjects
such as - for example the Standard
committee- the determination of breed
standards of Sighthound breeds and the
recognition of new Sighthounds breeds.
In 1989/1990, the NVOW realized that
the real breed interest would no longer
depend from the UICL and came to the
conclusion that the membership for a
breed club was no longer useful. It
cancelled its membership, could look
back on an active contribution in the
various periods and the fact that a lot of
our members experienced beautiful
moments with their sighthounds. With
that positive conclusion, I would like to
end this small chronicle.