Transparency
Code of Ethics
Annex 1 to the Internal Operating Regulations of the Association Club Federal Chinologic – Royal.
Aligned with the standards of the World Dog Federation (WDF) and the International Institute of Professional Cynology (IIPC).
Approved by the Board of Directors in its meeting of [data]. Ratified by the General Assembly on [data].
Preamble
Professional cynology is a discipline in which technical competence, the authority of judgement and the relationship with the animal meet within a space of public trust. This trust is not acquired through affiliations or titles, but through the constant, visible and verifiable conduct of those who practise the profession.
The Association assumes the responsibility of training and certifying professionals capable of maintaining this trust — both towards the national and international cynological community and towards the animals that are the object of their activity.
This Code of Ethics establishes the standards of conduct that all those affiliated with the Centre — members, lecturers, judges, trainees and administrative staff — undertake to observe. It is not a declarative document, but a practical instrument for guiding professional decisions in the concrete situations in which ethical tensions arise.
Chapter I. General provisions
Art. 1. Purpose and object
(1) This Code of Ethics establishes the principles, values and rules of professional conduct applicable to all persons affiliated with the Association, in any capacity.
(2) The Code supplements the provisions of the Statute and of the Internal Operating Regulations, without contravening them.
(3) The Code constitutes a benchmark for assessing disciplinary violations in accordance with Chapter VII of the Regulations.
Art. 2. Scope of application
The Code of Ethics applies to:
a) the members of the Association, in all the categories provided for by the Statute;
b) the members of the Board of Directors and of the Board of Auditors;
c) the lecturers, trainers and mentors of the Teaching Body;
d) the judges of the Panel of Judges;
e) the trainees enrolled in the Centre’s programmes;
f) the administrative and technical staff, including the IT and Educational Platforms Coordinator;
g) external experts and collaborators, for the duration and within the limits of their engagement with the Association.
Art. 3. Adherence to the Code
(1) Adherence to this Code is made by a written declaration, signed at the moment of acquiring one of the capacities provided for in Art. 2.
(2) Refusal to adhere or subsequent withdrawal of adherence entails the loss of the respective capacity.
(3) Ignorance of the provisions of the Code does not constitute grounds for exemption from liability.
Chapter II. Fundamental principles
Art. 4. Professional integrity
(1) Persons affiliated with the Association act with honesty, transparency and consistency in all aspects of their professional activity.
(2) Professional integrity excludes:
a) the deliberate misrepresentation of one’s own competences, titles or experience;
b) the appropriation of merits that do not belong to the person;
c) the fabrication, falsification or alteration of data, results or documents;
d) professional promises not backed by competence or authority.
Art. 5. Impartiality
(1) Persons affiliated with the Association assess professional situations exclusively on the basis of technical criteria and available evidence, free from the influence of personal, emotional, political, commercial or other considerations.
(2) Impartiality is mandatory regardless of the capacity of those involved (members, trainees, third parties).
(3) Persons who cannot act impartially in a concrete situation have the obligation to abstain and to transfer the responsibility to another competent person.
Art. 6. Professional competence and continuing education
(1) Persons affiliated with the Association exercise their duties exclusively within the limits of their proven professional competence.
(2) They maintain and update their knowledge through continuing education, specialist reading and participation in relevant professional events.
(3) Undertaking a professional activity for which the person does not hold the necessary competences constitutes an ethical violation.
Art. 7. Respect for the animal
(1) The dog is, in any context of the Association’s activity, a subject of protection, not an object of use.
(2) All teaching, evaluation, judging or demonstration activities are carried out with respect for the physical and psychological integrity of the animal.
(3) The detailing of this principle is the object of Chapter VI.
Art. 8. Respect for persons
(1) Persons affiliated with the Association treat colleagues, trainees, competitors, dog owners and the public with dignity, regardless of their professional position, origin, opinions or affiliations.
(2) The following are prohibited:
a) discrimination on any ground (gender, ethnicity, nationality, age, religion, political convictions, sexual orientation, social status);
b) harassment of any nature, including verbal, psychological, sexual;
c) personal attacks, public denigration or denigration in the digital space;
d) abuse of authority in hierarchical or teaching relationships.
Art. 9. Confidentiality
(1) Persons affiliated with the Association maintain the confidentiality of information obtained in the exercise of their duties, in particular:
a) the personal data of trainees, members and collaborators;
b) the content of examinations and the detailed assessment criteria prior to their publication;
c) the deliberations of the governing bodies and of the Ethics Committee;
d) disciplinary complaints under resolution;
e) information of a strategic, contractual or financial nature.
(2) The obligation of confidentiality is maintained even after the cessation of the capacity that gave rise to the access to the information.
Chapter III. General obligations of affiliated persons
Art. 10. Public conduct
(1) In any public or quasi-public context, persons affiliated with the Association behave in a manner compatible with the dignity of the profession and of the Association.
(2) The following are incompatible with belonging to the Association:
a) violent, publicly offensive or insulting behaviours;
b) the public promotion of professional methods incompatible with the standards of the Association or of the affiliated federations;
c) the public association of the Association’s name with commercial, political or partisan activities, without an express mandate.
Art. 11. Institutional loyalty
(1) Persons affiliated with the Association act in good faith in relation to the institution and its objectives.
(2) Institutional loyalty does not suspend:
a) the right to express constructive critical opinions within the established internal frameworks;
b) the obligation to report violations of this Code or of the Regulations;
c) the right and the obligation of professional conscience in the case of requests contrary to ethics.
Art. 12. Declaration of conflicts of interest
(1) A conflict of interest is any situation in which the personal, family, commercial or affiliation interests of a person may affect — or may create the reasonable appearance of affecting — the objectivity of the exercise of their duties.
(2) Conflicts of interest are declared in writing, prior to any activity in which they might intervene, to:
a) the President and the Secretary General, for the members of the Board of Directors;
b) the Technical Vice-President, for judges;
c) the Educational Vice-President, for lecturers;
d) the Academic Director, for matters of a scientific nature.
(3) Declared conflicts are recorded in an internal Register of conflicts of interest, managed by the Secretary General.
(4) Refusal to declare a known conflict of interest constitutes a serious ethical violation.
Chapter IV. Ethics of teaching activity
Art. 13. The professional standard of the lecturer
(1) The lecturer prepares their teaching activities rigorously, on the basis of the materials approved by the Academic Director.
(2) The lecturer:
a) observes the established schedule (timetable, attendance, duration);
b) treats all trainees equally, regardless of prior professional affiliations;
c) provides constructive, reasoned, technically grounded feedback;
d) does not use the teaching activity to promote personal commercial interests (the sale of external courses, products, or their own services).
Art. 14. The lecturer–trainee relationship. Prohibitions
(1) The relationship between the lecturer and the trainee is strictly professional, in which the lecturer has the responsibility of maintaining deontological distance.
(2) The following are absolutely prohibited:
a) relationships of a sexual or romantic nature between the lecturer and the trainee for the duration of the programme in which the lecturer has an evaluation role;
b) the receipt of gifts, benefits or personal services from trainees, apart from symbolic gestures customary in the context of graduation;
c) favouring a trainee on non-professional grounds (kinship, friendship, commercial interest, hierarchical pressure);
d) private communication with trainees on matters related to their assessment, outside the institutional frameworks;
e) the denigration of other lecturers, judges or of the Association, in the presence of trainees.
Art. 15. Intellectual property and teaching materials
(1) The lecturer respects the copyright over the teaching materials and the sources cited.
(2) Plagiarism, whether from external sources or from materials of other members of the Association, constitutes a serious ethical violation.
(3) The materials developed for the Association’s programmes are used exclusively within it. Their use in other contexts requires the written consent of the Academic Director.
Chapter V. Ethics in judging
Art. 16. The impartiality of the judge
(1) The judge evaluates exclusively on the basis of the breed standard, the applicable technical regulations and the direct observations made in the ring.
(2) The following are incompatible with judging activity:
a) consulting, prior to judging, the position of other judges or interested persons;
b) communicating with the owners or handlers of the dogs during the competition, beyond what is strictly technically necessary;
c) expressing publicly, prior to judging, preferences for certain dogs or breeders;
d) judging under the influence of alcohol or of any substances that may affect their acuity.
Art. 17. Conflict of interest in judging. Incompatibilities
(1) The judge may not judge:
a) dogs which they own, have owned or have bred in the last [12] months;
b) dogs of their relatives up to and including the [II] degree;
c) dogs of persons with whom they are in active commercial relationships (associates, partners, creditors, debtors);
d) dogs of their own trainees, for the period during which they exercise a teaching evaluation role over them;
e) dogs for which they have provided technical consultancy (handling, presentation, conditioning) in the last [6] months.
(2) Accepting a judging assignment without declaring a known incompatibility constitutes a serious ethical violation.
(3) “Reciprocal judging” practices are prohibited — situations in which two or more judges alternately judge each other’s dogs, systematically, for the purpose of mutual advantage.
Art. 18. Gifts, favours, benefits
(1) The judge does not accept, before or during the exercise of the judging assignment, any gift, favour or material benefit from persons whose dogs are or could be the object of their judging.
(2) The following are permitted:
a) accommodation, meals and transport offered by the organizer under usual and non-discriminatory conditions;
b) the fee and per diem established contractually with the event organizer;
c) symbolic protocol items (diploma, plaque, official souvenir of the event), of modest value.
(3) Any offer that exceeds the framework provided for in paragraph (2) must be politely refused and reported in writing to the Technical Vice-President, within 7 days.
Art. 19. Conduct in the ring and post-judging communication
(1) In the ring, the judge:
a) is punctual, presentable and observes the dress code of the event;
b) examines each dog with the same attention and the same reasonable duration;
c) communicates the decision clearly, firmly, without hesitation or ambiguity;
d) treats the handler, the owner and the dog with respect, regardless of the outcome of the evaluation.
(2) After judging:
a) the judge does not publicly comment on the decisions of other judges in a denigrating manner;
b) the judge does not publicly compare dogs judged in different competitions in a manner that would disqualify one of the evaluations;
c) public criticism of a judging (one’s own or that of another judge) is made exclusively in professional registers, with technical arguments, without personal attacks.
Chapter VI. Animal welfare
Art. 20. The principle of the protection and dignity of the animal
(1) The dog is, in any context of the Association’s activity, a subject of protection. Any activity carried out under the aegis of, or with the participation of, the Association observes the five fundamental freedoms of the animal:
a) freedom from hunger and thirst;
b) freedom from physical discomfort;
c) freedom from pain, suffering and disease;
d) freedom to express normal species behaviour;
e) freedom from fear and stress.
(2) These principles apply regardless of the immediate purpose of the activity (teaching, demonstration, evaluation, competition).
Art. 21. Standard of handling and conduct towards the animal
(1) In all activities involving dogs, persons affiliated with the Association:
a) handle the animal calmly, safely, without sudden movements or forcing;
b) respect the animal’s stress signals and take them into account in their decisions;
c) ensure access to water, shade and reasonable breaks;
d) avoid prolonged exposure to extreme weather conditions;
e) cease the activity, in the interest of the animal, if signs of fatigue, pain or panic appear.
(2) Judges, lecturers and trainees who observe improper treatment of a dog have the professional obligation to intervene — directly, if possible, or through immediate reporting to the organizers.
Art. 22. Absolute prohibitions and the obligation to report
(1) The following are absolutely prohibited, within any activity of the Association or carried out by persons affiliated with it:
a) striking, shaking, choking, lifting by the neck or other forms of physical violence against the dog;
b) the use of training methods based on pain, intense fear or the deprivation of food/water;
c) the use of abusive restraint equipment (sharp choke chains, electric devices without professional certification and without clinical justification);
d) cosmetic surgical interventions not authorized by national legislation (tail docking, ears cut for aesthetic purposes, devocalization);
e) the public exposure of dogs in an evident state of disease, exhaustion, advanced pregnancy or immediately post-partum.
(2) Any member or affiliated person who finds a violation of the provisions of paragraph (1) has the obligation to report it in writing, within 72 hours, to the Ethics Committee.
(3) The good-faith reporting of such facts cannot give rise to disciplinary measures against the person who reports, even if the facts are not subsequently confirmed.
Chapter VII. The ethics of the trainee
Art. 23. Academic conduct
The trainee:
a) observes the course schedule and the attendance obligations;
b) participates actively and in good faith in the teaching activities;
c) respects the lecturers, colleagues and administrative staff;
d) does not disrupt the teaching activity through disruptive behaviours.
Art. 24. Honesty in assessments
(1) The trainee takes the assessments honestly, exclusively on the basis of their own preparation.
(2) The following constitute serious ethical violations:
a) copying, in any form, during assessments;
b) impersonation at assessments;
c) the use of unauthorized materials;
d) communicating the content of assessments to trainees who are due to take them;
e) attempting to influence the evaluator by any means (gifts, personal relationships, pressures).
Chapter VIII. Public representation and communication
Art. 25. Public communication and the media
(1) Only the President and expressly mandated persons may make public statements on behalf of the Association.
(2) Affiliated persons may make public statements in their own name on cynological topics, provided that they:
a) specify that they are expressing a personal opinion, not a position of the Association;
b) respect confidentiality and the obligations of institutional loyalty;
c) avoid personal attacks against other members or structures of the Association;
d) maintain a professional and respectful register.
Art. 26. Conduct on social media
(1) The conduct of affiliated persons on social media is subject to the same ethical standards as public conduct in general.
(2) The following are incompatible with belonging to the Association:
a) posts that denigrate other members, judges, lecturers or trainees, whether identifiable or not;
b) posts that promote training methods or practices incompatible with this Code;
c) the publication of images or recordings showing abusive treatment of animals, in the absence of a clearly formulated educational or reporting purpose;
d) the use of the Association’s logos, insignia or references without a mandate.
Chapter IX. The Ethics Committee
Art. 27. Composition and duties
(1) The Ethics Committee is the structure competent to examine complaints concerning violations of this Code.
(2) The Committee is composed of three (3) members:
a) a member designated by the Board of Directors from among the members with seniority;
b) a member designated from among the Teaching Body or the Panel of Judges, depending on the field of the complaint;
c) a person external to the directly involved structure, who may be an honorary member or an external expert.
(3) The members of the Board of Directors may not simultaneously be members of the Ethics Committee.
(4) For each complaint, the Committee is constituted ad-hoc, by decision of the Board of Directors, within 15 days of registration.
Art. 28. Complaint and procedure
(1) A complaint may be lodged by:
a) any member of the Association;
b) any person affiliated in accordance with Art. 2;
c) third parties, if the reported act affects the reputation of the Association or the welfare of an animal.
(2) The complaint is formulated in writing, with reasons, with the identification data of the person complained against and a description of the facts.
(3) Anonymous complaints are not registered, except in cases of evident gravity concerning animal welfare, when they may constitute grounds for the Committee to act on its own initiative.
(4) The procedure follows the provisions of Art. 30 of the Internal Operating Regulations.
Art. 29. Confidentiality of the procedure
(1) All participants in the procedure of the Ethics Committee have the obligation to maintain confidentiality over the data, deliberations and conclusions, until the official communication of the decision.
(2) The public discussion, or discussion on social media, of a procedure in progress constitutes a distinct ethical violation.
(3) The person under investigation has the right to publicly defend their reputation after the conclusion of the procedure, within the limits of decency and without exposing confidential data of other parties.
Chapter X. Final provisions
Art. 30. Sanctions and the relationship with the disciplinary procedure
(1) The violation of this Code entails disciplinary liability in accordance with Chapter VII of the Internal Operating Regulations.
(2) The severity of the sanction is established according to:
a) the nature of the violation (serious ethical, serious, minor);
b) the circumstances of commission;
c) the existence of previous violations;
d) the attitude of the person under investigation (acknowledgement, regret, reparation of the harm);
e) the impact on the reputation of the Association and on third parties.
(3) The following constitute serious ethical violations, sanctionable by suspension or exclusion:
a) violations of the provisions concerning animal welfare (Chapter VI);
b) professional fraud (falsification of documents, plagiarism, impersonation at assessments);
c) the receipt of prohibited gifts or favours in a judging context;
d) harassment of any form;
e) the refusal to declare a known conflict of interest.
Art. 31. Amendment of the Code
(1) The amendment of this Code is made by decision of the Board of Directors with a qualified majority of four (4) out of five (5) members.
(2) The amendments are ratified by the General Assembly at the first meeting following their adoption.
Art. 32. Entry into force
(1) This Code was approved by the Board of Directors in its meeting of [data] and ratified by the General Assembly on [data].
(2) The Code enters into force on the date of ratification by the General Assembly.
Art. 33. Existing adherence
All persons who, at the date of entry into force of this Code, hold one of the capacities provided for in Art. 2 have the obligation to sign the declaration of adherence within 60 days. The absence of adherence within this period entails the suspension of the respective capacity until compliance.