To avoid any later unpleasantness, the sensible thing as we have said, is to work out in advance how many litters each considers the semen will entitle the importer of the semen to have, and at what stage - if any - a further stud fee will be payable. Obv iously the number of litters possible will vary according to the amount of straws used in the method chosen for insemination. Sometimes clients feel that if they pay the stud fee, then they automatically expect every drop of semen collected on that occasion to be sent to them. Seems logical, but think it through.This is fine in principle, but in fact with an average collection o f twenty straws do not forget there is enough for FIVE inseminations, so if the importer has the potential for so many litters they are in fact doing very well. Often, also of course, it is simply not possible for many kennels to take advantage of multip le inseminations from the same sire, so twenty straws are far more than will be used over most breeding programmes. It is not really justifiable to take every drop from the collection unless the importer has enough bitches to use it on.
If there is a great deal of semen, more than most breeders can logically use, why not come to an agreement that the sires'owner may freeze the excess for his own purposes later on? After all, when the collection is taking place, it is fairly illogical for the owner not to start storing some for themselves, as a subsequent trip to the veterinarian will of course attract a whole new lot of costs.
The question is often asked WHO OWNS THE SEMEN ONCE IT CHANGES HANDS?
In our country, imported semen becomes the property of the importer. Service certificates are signed by the inseminating veterinarian. At this stage any arrangements that may have been made between the shipper and the importer such as stud fees payable ea ch time semen is used etc. are considered private and a matter of trust. The only way this can be policed by the Controlling Body would be to insist that the owner of the dog signs each certificate as well. We did have a very unpleasant case in Australia where this had not been clearly spelt out and the owner of the stud dog belatedly decided they wanted a stud fee for each mating.
Probably as the use of frozen semen is increasing so rapidly, a world wide policy should be agreed upon between all the Canine Governing Bodies and a simple document developed where the shipper can select a box granting permission for the agreed number of inseminations, beyond which a stud fee musts be paid. If this were then signed by the importer, there should be no further problems and it could be lodged at the same time as the donor dog is re-registered in the country to which the semen has gone .
Something else which needs to be seriously considered is whether or not the stud dog owner is agreeable to semen being on sold by the original purchaser. Personally I would not agree to this under any circumstances unless advised of the potential destinat ion and given time to consider the suitability of the pedigrees in that kennel. However it has happened on numerous occasions, presumably with the dog's owner at least paid the courtesy of being asked for their permission. It is not really a matter for t he Controlling Body, because if they have ruled that the importer owns the semen, then presumably in their eyes he has the right to dispose of it as he wishes. When I export semen, I formerly advise my client in writing that I do not agree to it being on sold without consultation. Legally I cannot stop them, morally I hope they feel obligated to meet my requirements.
Another area where problems could occur is when semen is collected by the current owner before selling or giving a dog to another person.Obviously ethics dictate that the new owner be informed of this. In our case, when we sell a male from whom we have co llected, we would never make that semen available to another person DURING THE LIFETIME OF THAT DOG, although obviously we would expect to sell any progeny we may produce from the semen, without opposition from the dog's current owners. Any stud enquiries would be re-directed to the new owner, which we believe is the only correct way to behave in this situation. Should the dog be deceased but semen from our collection still available, then it would depend on whether or not we could spare any of it. If we could, we would expect the stud fee to be payable to ourselves, and not to the person to whom the dog had been sold, as he was our property at the time the semen was collected.
Now what if you GIVE - as opposed to sell - a dog to another person and they then decide to collect and store semen and then the dog dies? Who owns that semen, you because you did not charge for the dog so technically he was still YOURS, or do they, who h ave had the foresight to collect?
My feeling is that if they paid for the collection, they own the semen, but you can see this could be a mine field and should be taken into consideration.
Which raises the question of whether breeders should be allowed to use frozen semen from deceased dogs, or should they not? Obviously we personally believe that far from preventing this, Controlling Bodies should in fact be encouraging it, especially with relation to hereditable disease control.
Of course people say "How can they prove those puppies are by that dog now that he is dead?" Our answer is " Other than by the very expensive use of a DNA test, how can you prove ANY puppies are by ANY sire to whom they are registered?"
Unless you are personally acquainted with the sire himself and were actually present when he mated the bitch in question and unless that bitch was under your personal observation for the entire time of her season so that you can swear there is no possibil ity of a mis-mating having taken place, how CAN you prove it?
The same could be said of puppies born from bitches already in whelp when imported to another country.
The keyword in breeding livestock is TRUST. If a breeder is ethical, then they will apply the same strict standards of honesty to their frozen semen programme as they do to puppies they produce from natural matings. If you would buy one from a breeder bec ause you like the type they produce and the pedigree interests you, then you must be prepared to trust them equally as much when they announce puppies from frozen semen.
Don't do what one other breeder did recently - he predicted puppies of a certain colour to be born from frozen semen - in someone else's litter of course! - and they were not. However two other colours, which he had not predicted, were. He carelessly com mented "But that dog never produced black and tan or black masked gold when he was alive". To his embarrassment it was promptly pointed out that in fact two of the best known of the many champions by the sire in question were exactly those colours. The bl ack and tan had become an important brood bitch for a well known kennel and her lines are still prominent today. The black masked gold was a major winner and took Best In Show at a specialty under a very famous overseas breeder, one of the few to officiat e in Australia in those days. He was a very dominant producer and also features several times in the pedigree this person was doubting.
Wendye Slatyer July 97
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