Dogfight over Kennel Club ‘dictatorship’

Furious Kennel Club members have demanded the organisation’s top brass quit amid claims they are behaving ‘like a tinpot dictatorship’.

Club chairman simon Luxmoore and two directors will face a no- confidence vote after more than 250 members signed a letter calling for them to be removed.

Mr Luxmoore, 67, is said to have ‘embarrassed’ the 145-year- old club when he threw a tantrum after discovering a leaflet at the World Dog show in Amsterdam describing it as ‘ the world’s best dog show’ instead of Crufts, which is run by the Kennel Club.

Disgruntled members also say he has shown a ‘ lack of sound leadership’ and has brought the Kennel Club into ‘disrepute by his unprofessional actions’. Last year the organisation lost £677,000.

According to the our Dogs newspaper, the club’s executives have called in the Queen’s solicitors, Farrer & Co, to fight the challenge.

But a special general meeting of all 1,496 members has been called for next month to consider an unprecedented noconfidence vote in the leadership.

if the protesters succeed then Mr Luxmoore could be forced to resign along with Mark Cocozza, who oversees the club’s disciplinary panel, and Jeff Horswell, who chairs a committee on judging standards.

The Kennel Club said it was ‘ a democratically run organisation, which takes the views of its members very seriously’.