Background Information

BACKGROUND INFORMATION - by Mia Nelson

To my fellow AKGA members:

The AKGA is at risk of being bankrupted by the actions of a few people within the AKGA, most of them hobbyist backyard "breeders", and of Graham Culliford, a man who had nothing to do with the development of the Kiko in New Zealand, but who purchased the original NZ Kiko flock in 1994 and imported many of them to the US that same year. In 2000, Culliford sold the pedigree registry he created to the AKGA for $40,000. Culliford, along with certain AKGA members, have been slowly draining the AKGA’s finances by repeatedly threatening legal action. Their actions also risk discrediting the AKGA as well as the entire Kiko breed.

It is unfortunate that all of this needs to be said publicly, but given what these others have said and done, there is really no other way to settle this. I have assembled these materials to demonstrate that there is no basis in fact for any of these legal threats. Garrick Batten and I have held back this information until now out of concern for the integrity of the AKGA and the reputation of the breed, at least as it exists in the USA. We've waited since June 2008 for resolution of these problems, but it just keeps getting worse, and now things appear to have escalated to the point that something simply must be done. We hope that now, with the truth laid out, we can all put this behind us and get back to breeding goats, while we still have a breed association to register them.

Before I get into the details, let me explain how I fit into this. A few years ago, I had the pleasure to meet the founder of the Kiko breed, Garrick Batten, at the AKGA convention in Stillwater, where he was a featured speaker. Greatly impressed with his knowledge of goat breeding, I soon embarked on what has turned out to be a tortuous odyssey: bringing some of the remaining original NZ Kiko genetics here to the USA. My interests meshed with Garrick's, since he was concerned at the way that 100% NZ Kiko development was occuring in USA, and the need for new genetics. In addition, during his visit to the Stillwater Converntion, he became aware of discrepencies between what had been sold in 1994 and what had been imported and sold in USA. Registry errors were also brought to his attention. We agreed that bringing in some new NZ bloodlines would benefit the breed.

I began in mid-2007 with a plan to import old Kiko herdsire semen that Caprinex has kept frozen for decades. When that semen couldn’t meet export protocols, I decided to get semen from his new Kikonui breed, which was built off the Kikos left behind from the original import in 1994, as well as stored Kiko semen. But Garrick soon realized that a handful of these Kikonui goats were of 100% old Kiko genetics. So I decided that’s what I wanted. And I wanted them registered with AKGA.

Reading the AKGA’s rules, I saw that there were already procedures in place for doing this. There was also precedent. Sesame and Sting were never owned by Culliford, were not included in the AKGA registry that Culliford created, and never left NZ, yet were later registered with AKGA. Minor issues such as the sire of two of Garrick’s bucks being dead, and so not available for DNA testing, could be easily dealt with by the AKGA Board, as has been done for others in the same situation. So I encouraged Garrick to approach the Board. After careful consideration, the Board registered the donor animals, and Garrick proceeded with the expensive collection and importation. Between the two of us, we’ve invested about $40,000 in this.

Just before our scheduled auction in 2008, Duff Sandness called me and said there was a “problem with the registrations”, that Culliford had raised. Duff explained to me that he was concerned about the AKGA’s liability, if the auction proceeded. So I agreed to postpone it, to allow time to resolve this. I didn’t want buyers sucked into a legal issue. Little did I know then, that this was just the beginning of a series of escalating threats and legal posturing. Duff didn't tell me that he himself was involved in all this. I trusted his intentions were honorable. I wish now that I hadn't. We’ve been in limbo since last June, waiting for this to blow over. But it just keeps getting worse.

When Culliford came out with his series of outlandish claims, I did some fact-checking on a number of statements he made that had nothing to do with New Zealand or goats per se. What I discovered is documented in the next section. I just wanted to make my own assessment of Culliford’s honesty and grasp on reality. My view is that if a man can’t be trusted in one department, he can’t be trusted in any department. People are either rational and honest, or they’re not.

One of the things about this situation is that what Garrick says and what Culliford says cannot both be true. One of them is not telling the truth. We all have to decide for ourselves which person is honest, which has a grip on reality, which one we ought to put our faith in. I made my decision long ago that I don’t put much stock in anything Graham Culliford has to say. You’ll have to decide for yourself. I hope you will take the time to read everything that’s presented here, and then draw your own conclusions.

Click here for the next section