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Northeast Wisconsin Bully Breeders
A Division
of Porterfield Exotics |
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This page last edited on 10/05/2011 |
History Of Bully Breeds
Each Bully Breed dog has it's own
unique individual history as well as a common historical
background which takes us back before the time of written
history. The bullies that most of our modern bully breeds
have been developed from are the Bull Dogs of Great Britain that
were bred for the historical blood sport of Bull Baiting.
These Bull Dogs were developed by butchers through selective
breeding over thousands of years. The raising of butcher
cattle then was not like on our modern day farms. The
cattle were raised free range and became very wild, catching
them for butcher was a tough and dangerous job. The
butchers developed dogs that would help in rounding up,
separating and catching the cattle. A bull that had
usually never been touched by human hands would not simply stand
still for the butcher to cut it's throat and bleed it. The
butchers dogs were trained to catch, tire and hold the bull so
the butcher could kill it by cutting it's throat. The bull
did not stand still for the dogs either and this was a battle to
the death for the bull or the dog. This was quite a site
to see for spectators and throughout time attracted more
spectators and with spectators came wagers on who would win and
how long it would take them. Starting in about the 13th
century in England this practice began to become recognized as
more of a sporting event than as simply a means of butchering
the bulls. This blood sport gained in popularity and was
enjoyed and endorsed by many from the peasants to the royal
family well into the 18th century.
It was during this time in Bull Dog history that they were
altered by selective breeding for better performance in the ring
rather than the range. The large heavy Mastiff type breeds
gave way to the smaller shorter more stout dogs. They bred
for the strong muscular heavy front half of the dog as well as
the lighter hind end. This enabled the dog to better hold
it's grip on the bull and reduced the force of the dogs own
weight being used against it to break it's grip or it's back.
In the early 1800's the sport began to loose supporters and more people
began to call for the banning of bull baiting. The banning
of bull baiting was thrown out of the house of commons in 1802
but brought before back and approved by parliament in 1835.
The occasional bull baiting event was held in England until
about 1850.
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