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Rats! |
1. "Rats!"
Posted by augusta on Jan-12th-02 at 8:14 PM
This comes from "More Cunning than
Man" by Robert Hendrickson, 1988, Dorset Press:
"At ratting matches, popular in America and Europe
until they were outlawed in the early 1900's, dogs were
pitted against rats to see which dog could kill the most
rats in the shortest time."
"For the record, the most vaunted rat killer among
dogs was a bullterrier bitch named Jenny Lind (after the
"Swedish Nightengale"), who killed 500 rats
in 1 1/2 hours at an arena called "The Beehive"
in Liverpool, England in 1853. The British bullterrier,
"Jocko", killed 1000 rats in 1 hour 40 minutes,
but the feat was performed over a period of ten weeks
in 1852, Jocko loosed upon 100 rats at a time, which wasn't
exactly cricket. One benefit of the sickening ratting
contests was the breeding of albino rats (used because
the blood showed better on them), which were eventually
put to use in scientific laboratories."
"During the 1870's and 1880's, American newspapers
were full of stories about prize rat-killing dogs, or,
where rat fights were illegal, about police raids on private
homes, pubs, or stables where scores of people were arrested
and great numbers of rats and dogs confiscated."
Then follows an article from the sports page of an 1878
New York Times featuring two dogs named Flora and (sorry)
Harry. They say Flora is "a white bull-and-terrier
slut". Is that an old-fashioned term for a
female dog??
2. "Re:
Rats!"
Posted by dave rehak on Jan-13th-02 at 2:59 PM
In response to Message #1.
LOL. A slut? I thought she was a bitch
LOL!!!!!
Ah, rats! Too bad I wasnt around for those dog vs. rat
matches
3. "Re:
Rats!"
Posted by Harry on Jan-13th-02 at 3:25 PM
In response to Message #1.
Thanks Augusta for that article.
I had never heard of that before. It sent me scurrying
to the web to look up ratting.
So a good one was named "Harry"?
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