Failures in animal welfare within complex organizations are rarely isolated ethical lapses. They are more often early-warning indicators of deeper governance breakdown—signals that systems designed to ensure safety, accountability, and professional integrity are no longer functioning as intended. This preprint presents a standards-based, systems-governance framework that uses hound welfare in Canadian hunt clubs as a clear, observable entry point for identifying and correcting governance failure. The analysis treats animal welfare not as an advocacy issue, but as a non-negotiable operational indicator linked to organizational safety, fiduciary responsibility, and professional duty. The framework is explicitly non-personalized and non-adjudicative. It does not name clubs or individuals, does not assert findings of misconduct, and does not replace legal or regulatory processes. Instead, it provides a structured method for recognizing governance stress, protecting good-faith reporters, restoring safe operating conditions, and enabling institutional renewal through due-process mechanisms. Special attention is given to the professional obligations of veterinarians, the governance risks associated with retaliation or suppression of documented welfare concerns, and the common but flawed assumption that historical abuse can be safely ignored. The work situates hunt clubs as a bounded, instructive microcosm of broader governance challenges across equine sport, where misalignment of authority and expertise, procedural distortion, and fear-based silence can undermine welfare, safety, and legitimacy. Designed for use by club boards, Masters, veterinarians, insurers, sponsors, regulators, and ethical members, this framework emphasizes prevention, transparency, and role clarity. Its objective is not punishment or exposure, but risk reduction, trust restoration, and durable governance repair. The approach is transferable beyond hunt clubs and offers a scalable template for addressing welfare-linked governance failures across equine sport and other volunteer-driven, high-trust organizations where professional duty, safety, and reputation are tightly coupled.