Identifier: newbookofdogcomp01leig (find matches)
Title: The new book of the dog : a comprehensive natural history of British dogs and their foreign relatives, with chapters on law, breeding, kennel management, and veterinary treatment
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Leighton, Robert, 1859-1934
Subjects: Dogs
Publisher: London New York : Cassell
Contributing Library: Webster Family Library of Veterinary Medicine
Digitizing Sponsor: Tufts University

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mmediately bled and put into a warm bath. There were nearly three hundredpersons present. The method of conducting the fight wasfor each dog in turn to cross a chalkedline and bring his opponent out of hiscorner. The dogs were handled by theirkeepers in the ring, and once they werereleased they flew at each others throats,and having established a hold they pro-ceeded to grind and tear each other to thedeath. The tactics adopted by the dogs variedaccording to the training they had received.Some would fight at the head, others at thelegs, which were frequently broken, whilstothers attempted to tear open the throat.When a dog loosened his hold to breathethe round was terminated, and eachdog was taken to his respective corner andsponged down by his keeper. A minutesgrace was allowed between each round, andthe fight sometimes lasted for two or threehours. It will be observed in the picture of theWestminster Pit that three of the dogsoutside the arena are being forcibly held pr ; ■• jp+
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WESTMINSTER PIT (1820).From an Old Print. 38 THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. back from joining in the fray, into which theyappear to be eager to enter. As a matterof fact, it was not necessary to incite thedogs to fight, as they were only too anxiousto be at work, and while being restrainedthey would scream with rage and lick theirlips in anticipation of what was to follow.In order that the ears might not form aneasy object to hold they were usuallycropped close to the head, and this practicewas generally followed well into the seven-ties. Dog-fighting gradually declined dur-ing the middle of the last century, andpractically ceased thirty years ago. Practices of this nature doubtless ledto the lack of interest taken in the breed,and to the expression of opinion in BritishField Sports that the Bulldog devotedsolely to the most barbarous and infamouspurposes, the real blackguard of his species,has no claim upon utility, humanity, orcommon sense, and the total extinctionof the breed is a desira

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