Another summer has come and gone, it’s hard to believe that it’s almost time to head for Texas! This summer has been exceptionally hard on the animals and people. I’ve heard that a number of breeders had a great deal of difficulty this summer, and we’ve suffered some significant losses in our own herd. I trust that everyone had a very productive time promoting the ARBA, and the rabbit/cavy fancy at their fairs. Most areas of D9 are a bit slack on summer shows, so the summer is often a good time to reflect upon how our breeding season has been and determine where we are going with our program. Have I accomplished the goals I set this winter? What fault(s) have I successfully addressed in this breeding season? Which juniors will be my base stock to continue the progress in my herd? With the ARBA convention fast approaching, it’s difficult to imagine that we need to begin working on breeding for the spring nationals. Litters born now will be 6/8’s or seniors in April, with juniors being born in October. I’d like to correct an error from my last report. Cheyenne Keen and Katie Robbins had BOB at the ANDRC Nationals, Brandon Love had BOS. Sorry for the mix up!

Speaking of convention, those of you who are planning to ‘Scoot Your Boots’ to Texas should have your travel plans already confirmed. I am a bit concerned with traveling this year, just due to the recent events with airlines and the counter-terrorism efforts. I am wondering (and hoping not) if this will make it more difficult to fly our animals. Our best defenses are to be 1) be informed, 2) be polite. When purchasing a ticket or preparing to make your travel arrangements, read and have a copy of the rules for shipping rabbits/cavies. Most airlines have much of their ‘pet carrier’ requirements on their websites. Call ahead and discuss your plans with one of their ticketing agents before purchasing a ticket online. If you plan to ship your animals as excess baggage, they must know how many kennels are booked on the flight; as only a limited number of kennels may be in the area under the plane. Booking flights online is great, but you cannot confirm that your kennels can travel with you. Be certain to follow the rules to a ‘T’; from the bedding permitted in the pans of your carriers, the health certificates, and the number of animals allowed per kennel. Can you sneak a couple extra animals in a kennel, or get by with a faked health certificate? Perhaps, but are you willing to take the chance that they will refuse your shipment? Individuals bending the rules or trying to slide through the system has contributed to some of the airline workers being ‘difficult’. Also, creating a scene does little more than further divide airline carriers from wanting to allow rabbits/cavies from traveling as excess baggage. Take documentation from the airline that your kennels have been reserved on the flights, the rules governing flying rabbit/cavies on that particular airline, and have copies of the health certificates on the kennels as well as on your person. Most airport ticketing personnel have seen very few rabbits/cavies shipped in the past (depending upon the airport); the better informed and prepared you are, they may even be looking to YOU so they know what they should be doing. As with anything else, a smile-‘thank you’-‘I appreciate your taking the time to help me’, will go a long way in fostering a positive relationship with the airline industry.

 
Unfortunately, due to the distance, many of our youth members who have been participating in contests at convention will not be able to attend this year. At this time it is unclear whether there will be any teams from D9 competing, but we will do our best to get at least one together if at all possible. D9 is moving ahead with plans to form a show circuit/organization to host a national convention in D9. The following is an excerpt from a communication with Lori Jo Whitehaus, PaSRBA president: 1. There is sufficient interest in making a convention happen here on the east coast. 2. PaSRBA will not be the sponsoring club. We will form a completely independent Eastern States/Mid-Atlantic whatever-to-be-named rabbit club to organize and run the convention. 3. The Pennsylvania State Farm Show Complex (our premier PA facility) is not available in October or November. We are already starting to look at other facilities that are near to a major airport and will draw members from across the nation to this convention. 4. We need an organizational meeting and we should get started soon. The key leadership stepping forward at this time is encouraging. Eric Stewart is very supportive of this effort. Brian Bell and I are strong believers that this is something we can do. We have gathered a small but impressive list of volunteers who are willing to work at various levels to make this happen. We believe that it can be done.
While it does look like PaSRBA leadership will be getting this organized, this will NOT be a PaSRBA function. Anyone with questions or comments regarding this effort can contact Lori Jo Whitehaus at ljwhitehaus@comcast.net

I have received the following from Paul Dvorak, NCRBA vice-president: NCRBA youth club had a night show with the GAA Shelby show in July. During the show, the youth held a very successful bake sale. After the youth show, the kids enjoyed an overnight camp-out at the show grounds. Thanks to Beth Hayes and Jeri North (youth advisory board), for helping the youth organize this activity. Also, a huge congratulations go out to Laurie Stroupe of VA, our newest ARBA licensed registrar! Our D9 discussion group on yahoo just keeps growing. We have members throughout the district and some from other parts of the country as well. D9 shows regularly draw exhibitors from other districts. I received the following from a D9 post: We live in Ontario Canada and show ARBA in ONT., NY, OH, MI, and PA. We just started a Brand New Rabbit Club Called the Trillium Rabbit Breeders Association and it's Chartered by ARBA. Please visit our website, we're very proud of it. http://trba.ca Brian and Ruth Ann Bell of NJ, are proud to announce the birth of Eli Richard Bell on July 28, 2006. He was born at 5:08pm, is 22 inches long and weighs 9 lbs. 0.6 oz. Jacob is excited to have another brother although he is asking a lot of questions. Caleb and Isaac are not sure what to make of their younger brother yet. Congratulations to the Bell family and all their blessings!

PaSRBA held a general membership meeting on August 5th. Chair Sue Toth has worked with the Farm Show Commission to gain the following changes for the 2007 PA Farm Show in January: the rabbit show will be in the large arena for more space; premiums will be given for showmanship; a poster contest with premiums has been added; meat pen auction will be spotlighted on a raised table with skirting in the arena; no fees will be collected for the housing and care of winning rabbits; new breeds and varieties have been added to the catalog in accordance with current ARBA listings; two employees of the Farm Show Complex will be transferred to the rabbit department for the week for paid care and cleaning; anyone can apply at the Farm Show Complex to be considered for these temporary positions. The PaSRBA Convention is scheduled for February 3rd and 4th at the Lebanon Expo Center in Lebanon, PA. Chair Brian Bell is working to secure the entire building for our use and improve the layout to accommodate all exhibitors and vendors for the best show ever. Last year's convention included exhibitors from 16 states with 5,000 entries. Overnight cooping will again be offered at this day of entry show. The new Equipment Committee with chair Gerry Vaerewyck purchased an enclosed trailer to house the club's equipment. A second trailer is being sought as one is just not enough. Last but not least, PaSRBA proudly announces the following winners of the Higher Education Scholarship: 1st place - Jessi Kummer, 2nd place, Randi Kummer and 3rd place - Elizabeth Shoemaker.

The 2006 Penn State 4-H Achievement Days was held on August 2nd and featured a Rabbit/Cavy Bowl Competition. This annual competition includes both a skillathon to determine winning individuals and a bowl contest to determine winning teams by county. This year, only 14 youth participated in the event but everyone had a wonderful time. This event is co-chaired by John Falter (Berks) and Julia Krout (Bucks). The on-site assistants are Mary Jo Kraft (York) and Lori Jo Whitehaus (Dauphin). Since enrollment was low and only two counties sent complete teams, individuals were combined to form teams so that all could participate. The winning team was a combination of three counties. Katie Furnick and Jason Roland (Westmoreland), Katrina Kahle (Venango) and Andrew Toskin (Mercer) comprised the winning team. Crawford County was 2nd, Bucks County was 3rd, and a combination from Dauphin and Butler County took 4th. Questions were written by Pam Nock and read by volunteer Andrea Haug. For individuals, 1st place went to Katrina Kahle (Venango). Megan Gutekunst (Dauphin) placed 2nd, Hannah Wisniewski (Crawford) placed 3rd, Katie Gurnick (Westmoreland) placed 4th and Richard Vaerewyck (Butler) placed 5th. Their placements were determined by their individual scores on the written test, showmanship, judging, breed identification and equipment identification. This event is quite difficult for the beginner. To encourage more to participate in this event, Lori Jo Whitehaus will be offering Bowl 101 with practice questions at some of the PaSRBA Sanctioned shows this year. All youth are encouraged to play Rabbit Bowl while waiting for their breed to be called to the judging table!

From VA, we have exciting news. There is talk of starting a state association for the state of VA…way to go!!! Anyone interested in helping with this endeavor, please contact Laurie Stroupe, 148 The Nature Trail, Ararat, VA 24053, Laurie@thenaturetrail.com Also, the NARBC recently had their elections, and Sally Campbell of VA was elected to represent the NARBC D9 membership. “I would like to introduce myself, My name is Sally Campbell and I have been elected the District 9 Director for the National Angora Rabbit Breeders Club. I would really like to see this district in NARBC be as accomplished as it is in ARBA. If anyone would like to get in touch with me, has any questions or suggestions please e-mail me at d9angoras@yahoo.com. Looking forward to serving you in all your angora needs, Sally” Thank you Sally!

Your ARBA officers and directors have been working the past couple of months in preparation for the meetings in Ft Worth. We are looking forward to the new judging coops at convention this year. The ARBA webspace has been moved to a new server, the address is the same, the provider is different. This will allow us more space and hopefully a bit more ease in getting support. No new word on the PAWS bill, however, being a constituent of Rick Santorum, I am pretty certain that the sponsor of the bill will not be re-elected to office this fall. I’m not sure that will ‘kill the bill’ as co-sponsors can pick it up; however, it could definitely wipe out some of the momentum behind it. I’ve also been following the NAIS saga through various channels. Agricultural interests throughout the country are lashing out at government officials for supporting this legislation. The latest word I have received is that the USDA is not offering additional funding to support the legislation, making enforcement next to impossible. Rabbits and cavies are not specifically named in the NAIS plan, however, states can modify their own NAIS requirements. I know that there have been concerns with Virginias’ plans to include rabbis. I would encourage our members to keep abreast of how their states are planning to enforce this legislation. A great deal of work has gone into planning the 2006 Judge’s Conference in Ft Worth. I strongly encourage anyone who is attending the convention in October to attend; as I feel that this may be one of the best conferences to date. Work is underway to have the conference professionally recorded, and the presentations all done in Power Point presentations. For many years we have been discussing having these conference materials made available to the membership, however, we have come up short each time. I have committed myself to ensuring that this goal is attained in 2006! I would like to personally thank the Oxbow Products Co. for sponsoring this year’s 2006 ARBA Judge’s Conference. Their sponsorship will allow us to have binders prepared with the material covered in the conference. At present, we only have one judge’s applicant here, impatiently waiting for a second so he can take his judge’s exam. If there is anyone interested, even from other districts, please let me know so we can schedule a judge’s exam in D9.