Why FCI is interested in Kazakh Tazy

It's written 17.10.2024 for www (dot)caes-e-cia(dot)com(dot)br as an answer on the request of Fabio Bense on the actual subject of FCI recognition of the Kazakh Tazy breed.

Hi Fabio,

I've read your message and ready to answer on your questions.

1) How did the KAZAKH TAZY breeders receive this news about the FCI recognition?

2) Was it a difficult and long process until the FCI recognition?

3) Do you know why FCI decided to recognize this breed?

Regarding the news of the FCI’s recognition of the "Kazakh Tazy" breed, the first thing that comes to mind is the image-related aspect present throughout this process. Of course, as an international PR project, this fact is very appealing to our country. Undoubtedly, this information is actively disseminated by government and affiliated sources in Kazakhstan and even in the former USSR and globally. Ordinary people and many Kazakh Tazy owners, unfamiliar with political and information processes, rejoice because this recognition, as a legendary symbol and indicator of national pride, promotes Kazakhstan as a whole. However, there are many hidden aspects that run counter to the immediate euphoria of the masses.

Firstly, this breed could quickly shift from its indigenous status to becoming an exhibition breed, marketed as an exclusive and rare symbol for foreign owners. Such prospects negatively impact the specialization and psychological development of this breed. Dogs unaccustomed to wearing collars and be on a leash will be forced to adapt, which could break their psyche. Secondly, there are many questions related to the recognition of the breed by the FCI. Ordinary Kazakh Tazy owners are unaware of the potential consequences of the FCI's breed requirements, and the subsequent obligations that fall upon Kazakhstan’s canine organizations, individual owners, and government bodies involved in the regulation of these social and veterinary matters.

Thirdly, the new context could affect the genetic diversity of this indigenous breed. The most commercially successful breeders in Kazakhstan, who have the skills to navigate the international rare breed market, will be offering dogs bred in their kennels to the global market. However, that is only a small fraction of the breed’s population. Even the FCI’s DNA testing in recent years covered only a tiny portion of the indigenous breed's population because the FCI’s contacts with local owners were filtered through narrow exhibition formats. As a result, the genetic material collected may not be representative of the entire population. Kazakhstan is a large country, and conducting an inventory of all purebred dogs and crossbreeds involved in breeding is a complex task requiring significant funding, and it is doubtful that the government will undertake it. Commercial kennels and associations, due to limited financial resources, are even less capable of covering the breed's regional and phenotypic diversity spread across Kazakhstan’s vast geography.

Was the FCI recognition of the Kazakh Tazy a long and difficult process? Do I know why the FCI decided to recognize this breed? These questions make me smile sarcastically, and I’ll try to explain why. Naturally, any standardization process, whether for car tires, vaccines for cattle, or international space station docking systems, requires many agreements if the circumstances demand it. The same applies to artificial and show dog breeds, whose standards must be unified. However, standardization does not always benefit indigenous breeds.

Ordinary owners and breeders of this breed wouldn’t have been upset if FCI recognition hadn’t occurred. The interest in recognition was primarily from commercial kennels eager to mass-produce puppies of this authentic breed. I repeat—authentic and indigenous, but not rare or endangered, as commercial breeders attempt to portray it. This myth was intentionally created.

As mentioned, the recognition serves the country’s PR and the success of Kazakhstan's foreign affairs. The political component of this issue is based on myths that the breed was a symbol of the survival and prosperity of Kazakh tribes in medieval and ancient times. In the mid-2000s, there was a call to search for elements of national identity, as the collapse of the USSR demanded the creation of a new ideological framework focused on a heroic past. The history of the 16th to 20th centuries could not always be portrayed as heroic, so historians serving the new government turned their attention to earlier periods, focusing on everyday life rather than political and geopolitical processes in the Great Steppe.

By the early 2010s, political image-makers and PR strategists working for the ruling party Nur Otan (translated as "Bright Fatherland") intensified efforts to popularize elements of national pride, such as the "Seven Riches" (Жетi Казына), a legendary set of treasures for Kazakh men. One of these seven riches is the Kazakh Tazy. This spurred commercial breeders to collect attractive dogs from easily accessible areas near major cities. This marked the beginning of breeding efforts and the search for monetization opportunities. Simultaneously, some activists with commercial interests in the breed received support. Myths about the breed's rarity and endangered status piqued the interest of foreign dog enthusiasts. Internally, these PR efforts encountered several organizational barriers in planning of outside the post-Soviet space activity.

Until then, Kazakhstan’s dog breeding followed Soviet standards, which largely inherited traditions from the Russian Empire. The late-Soviet breeding model, which also applied to Kazakhstan didn’t align with European and American standards. Therefore, the Kazakh Tazy was not recognized as a distinct breed for a long time in Europe, preventing the open and effective monetization of this element of Kazakh heritage. However, efforts to satisfy foreign demand for the breed continued, despite its unrecognized status. Since 2019, publications have appeared about Kazakhstan's president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev owning a pack of Kazakh Tazys. By then, puppies were regularly being exported through informal channels to Russia, then via Ukraine to Poland and the Czech Republic, and from there to Europe and the U.S.

This arrangement would have remained satisfactory had the Russia-Ukraine conflict not disrupted the breed's transit to the West. As a result, alternative routes and methods for transporting Kazakh Tazy puppies were sought. Among these, the question of breed legitimization through FCI recognition gained renewed relevance to facilitate transport with proper documentation. On September 1, 2022, President Tokayev officially instructed the Office of the President to take state control over the preservation and promotion of the Tazy as a Kazakh indigenous breed. In November 2023, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Kazakhstan. It is likely that the main reason for his visit was France's interest in Kazakh uranium and the construction of nuclear power plants in Kazakhstan using French technology. During this visit, two Kazakh Tazy dogs were presented to the French president, a Kazakh tradition of showing deep respect to the recipient. This was another step in promoting the breed and creating a wave of publicity in Europe, which likely contributed to FCI officials accelerating the process of breed recognition.

Support for research initiatives, as well as a thorough consideration of the anthropological and ecological contexts surrounding the Kazakh Tazy, still has a long way to go.

A question from Fabio Bense in 21.10.2024

Did you mean that Kazakh Tazy dogs were given to Macron as a gift? Or they were just showed to the French presidente?

It was a traditional gift for Macron from the host party.
There is a deep meaning for this in the context of social relations in traditional Kazakh society and respectful diplomatic relations. Selling puppies of this breed has historically been considered a bad form of behaviour. Tazy, as a recognized element of national heritage, cannot be subject to bargaining. It's like if you will sell Amazon River and fully all rare animals aroud it to foreign collectors and zoo parks. It means that all current commercial activity with tazy and their puppies is a display of bad manners though the prism of traditions. Of course, the gift to Macron meets all the requirements of respectful treatment of a high-ranking guest. Thus, if you have a tazy dog kennel it means that you should make a choise: to apply yourself as a defender of traditions or one who ignores them as a a merchant with low moral standards.

In addition. There is four traditional ways to own tazy: as a gift, to steal, to change and to buy. The last on is the most worst for the owner's reputation in social relations. It means his lowest status. On the other hand, that breeder who sells tazy puppues as a commercial unit with high added value has a reputation as a huckster or chandler. Any owner of tazy pack can ask oly a symbolic payment for puppies to to follow the traditional sign so that the puppy could not die immediately from illness in the new owner home. Traditionally its about 1000 tenge (~US$2) or what new owner wants to pay himself.

You can change a tazy individual on rams or others animals, or any treasure (weapon, juelry, horses or a something more). It depends on agreement between friends, inter-tribe relations or glory satus of a dog. But not money! Because all people had remembered that the tazy individual safed a clan of people by hunting in starving winter, when all animals died.

But, remember and pay your attention that it's only the ancient tradition and moral absolute do not sell tazy. In current days 99,99 percent ordinary owners want to make money as soon as possible.

The inflation of the symbolic meaning of national wealth has crossed all conceivable limits. At the same time people can see official declarations about tazy as an element of national heritage and manipulations with FCI to make the breed as a better goods for sale.