Perhaps the rumour/leak is rather like a government policy rumour/leak: a deniable, but deliberate attempt to test the waters of public opinion and find the weakest points that need defending?
And perhaps, if they are already going to press ahead in US (where they sometimes seem to be more human convenience-oriented than we are regarding pets... de-clawing cats, anybody?) they want to see whether other QVC country outlets could be viable.
