Sunday, April 18, 2010

I was recently contacted via email by the organizer of a local Great Dane rescue regarding my website (www.fitzlanedanes.com).

As it turns out, my feeding guidelines were a duplicate of the information that they had on their website.
In this woman’s email, she requested that I remove the information, as all information on their website is copy written. I promptly removed my informational page(s) to avoid any further conflict.
My website’s focus is now driven more towards keeping everyone abreast of Hercules’ battle with IMHA.

-Firstly, I have a personal problem with the fact that I was simply informing the public about how intricate the care and feeding is when you own a Great Dane. Technically, in copy written material, there exists such a thing called “fair use”, you can google it. “Fair Use” is the right to reproduce certain percentages of someone else’s information, with many things considered, such as- Is it educational? Is it not for profit? How much of the work are you using?

-Secondly, my website has been live for almost a year, and this is the first time I’ve ever had a complaint about it’s content. Her email came conveniently after it was evident that I have developed a relationship with another Great Dane Rescue group, whom I openly support and recommend. In one email from this woman, she went so far as to say “I have been told that you are involved with another Great Dane rescue so perhaps asking them for educational material would be more appropriate”.

-And lastly, I was completely offended by her approach, especially considering everything we have been through with Liberty and Hercules. It was coarse, cold, unprofessional, and down-right rude.

I worked very hard at educating myself when breeding Liberty, and in the care of her pups after she passed. I studied the breed under the tutelage of a breeder who has been raising Danes for almost 20 years, and is a wonderful, knowledgeable, dedicated woman when it comes to the Great Dane.

To my understanding, the Doctor who treated Hercules in Scarborough, and one of the women who bought a puppy from our litter, both work closely with this particular rescue, and wanted me to attend some meet and greets. I had really given it some consideration. Unfortunately, the emails I received insured that Hercules and I will never involve ourselves with her or her organization.

Although we all live on different avenues when it comes to Danes (owners, reputable breeders, rescue), we all serve the SAME PURPOSE.
In my opinion, this is a sad example of an agenda other than the well being of the breed.

The above literature has been written in my opinion only, and is governed by the Maine Constitution, Article 1, Declaration of Rights, Section 4 (which states):
Every citizen may freely speak, write and publish sentiments on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of this liberty; no laws shall be passed regulating or restraining the freedom of the press; and in prosecutions for any publication respecting the official conduct of people in public capacity, or the qualifications of those who are candidates for the suffrages of the people, or where the matter published is proper for public information, the truth thereof may be given in evidence, and in all indictments for libels, the jury, after having received the direction of the court, shall have a right to determine, at their discretion, the law and the fact.
http://www.maine.gov/legis/const/Constitution2005-01.htm


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