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"They're big babies," he told the Chapel Hill Herald.
"They love to be petted. They do stupid, entertaining things."
"These
dogs were bred for bull-baiting in medieval times," Butler
explained. "They would latch onto a bull's nose and hang on
until the bull was exhausted."
Butler
also assured the Herald that Rock had meant the car
no harm.
"As soon
as the guy stopped," said Butler, "Rock stopped chewing on
the car because he thought he was going to get a ride. He's
not a vicious dog."
Vicious?
No. Optimistic? You got it.
How many
people are going to open the door for a 65-pound dog with
his teeth in the quarter panel? Bulldogs must certainly have
a keener sense of the absurd than most people do.
With
Baited Breath
As Butler
correctly noted, the bulldog was bred originally to participate
in bullbaiting, a strange and savage ritual that was popular
in England from the 13th through the early 19th centuries.
"Bulls were baited," according to the one Oxford historian,
"By being tethered to a stake and then attacked by dogs, usually
in succession, but sometimes all together. The dog would make
for the bull's nose, often tearing off its ears or skin, while
the bull would endeavor to toss the dog into the spectators.
If the tethered animal broke loose, scenes of considerable
violence ensued. "If the bull did not break free, one of the
dogs invariably put a lip lock on the bull's muzzle and held
on until the bull was immobilized."
Bullbaiting
was one of the British national pastimes, "a sport the English
much delight in; and not only the baser sort, but the greatest
ladies," wrote John Houghton in 1694. And aside from its obvious
sporting appeal, bullbaiting was considered necessary to drain
the bull of poisoned blood and to tenderize its meat. The
British, understand, took their beef seriously. By the 17th
century beef was a staple in Britain, and a person was not
to be considered a glutton, explained John Weemse of Scotland
in 1632, if he ate merely three pounds of beef a day, often
spit-roasted and noticeably underdone.
Those
Mists of Time
The dogs
used to tenderize British beef were a rugged lot. Their ancestry,
like that of many breeds, contains more speculation than substance.
Certain observers believe the bulldog was the parent of the
mastiff. Others claim the bulldog resulted from the crosses
between mastiffs and Dutch pug dogs. But, writes Colonel Bailey
C. Hanes in The New Bulldog (Howell Book House), "It
is now generally agreed that both the Mastiff and the Bulldog
probably had a common origin in the Alaunt." The latter was
defined in a dictionary published in 1632, says Hanes, "as
being like a Mastiff and serving butchers to bring in fierce
oxen to keep them in their stalls."
Whatever
its origin, there is no speculation regarding the bulldog's
courage, tenacity and virtual lack of pain receptors. As one
writer has commented, "The British bulldog was the most valiant
beast the Almighty (assisted by a number of sadistic breeders)
had chosen to create." That dog, which the writer also described
as a "devil incarnate," appeared to have outlived his usefulness
when bullbaiting was finally outlawed in England in 1835.
Fortunately, a number of devotees of this courageous dog decided
that its other assets were worth preserving.
What
Price Salvation?
The efforts
to preserve the bulldog, some people argue, were a mixed blessing
whose consequences did nothing for the breed's vitality. This
argument was proposed as early as 1927 by Edward Ash in Dogs:
Their History And Development. "When bull-baiting ended,"
wrote Ash, "the dog was bred for [the] 'fancy.' And characteristics
desired at earlier times for fighting and baiting purposes
were exaggerated so that the unfortunate dog became unhappily
abnormal. In this translation state, huge, broad, ungainly
heads were obtained, legs widely bowed were developed and
frequently the dog was a cripple."
The bulldog's
wrinkles, intended to channel the bull's blood away from the
bulldog's eyes, were greatly overemphasized. The layback of
the face, which allowed bulldogs to breath while they hung
onto a bull's nose, was also exaggerated; and the loose skin
on the body, designed to protect the dog's internal organs,
grew even more loose.
The conditions
described by Ash 70 years ago continue to shadow the bulldog
today on both sides of the ocean. The British, of course,
are more apt to take those conditions personally. "The bulldog
of the 1800s was a potent symbol for our former imperial might,"
said Marcus Scriven in London's Daily Mail. "It was
a brave fighter, with a longer muzzle than today's breed and
possessed of a muscular agility second to none."
"Now,
though, in what seems an inescapably apt metaphor for our
decline, the British Bulldog is in dire trouble, its physique
so damaged and distorted by inappropriate breeding that it
has been reduced to a wheezing, loose-skinned parody of what
it is meant to be. It has, in short, become an animal deserving
pity, rather than one worthy of respect."
"Today's
dog suffers eye problems, congenital heart conditions, dental
and skin disorders and vertebrae deformities. Its shorter
muzzle has lead to breathing difficulties, and the large head
means pups have to be born by Caesarian section."
The
Bottom Lines
To be
sure, the bulldog is not everyone's plate of beef. If you
are looking for a long-term relationship, you should realize
that bulldogs are not famous for their longevity. The typical
bulldog seldom lives beyond 10 years. Nor is the bully the
dog for you if you want an obedient dog that will salute on
command. Bullies are intelligent, but like many intelligent
people, they are apt to trust their own intelligence as much
as they do yours. This leads some people to say that bullies
are stubborn. Finally, you should know that while they are
alive, bulldogs are likely to occasion higher medical expenses
than the average breed because bullies are prone to a number
of afflictions.
But if
you, like the poet Lord Byron, are looking for a dog possessing
"Beauty without Vanity, Strength without Insolence, Courage
without Ferocity, and all the Virtues of man without his Vices,"
the bully might just be your perfect union, Jack. And if you
could not help but love a dog that will interrupt your afternoon
nap by dropping a bone on your chest - then return with a
roll of toilet paper still attached to the holder if you ignore
him - your prayers have been answered.
More than
a few people have found those attributes and then some in
their bulldogs, and for all the challenges they present to
their owners, bullies remain a popular breed. In 1995, the
bulldog added 12,092 new registrations to the rolls of the
American Kennel Club (AKC). This figure placed the bulldog
30th in terms of new registrations for the year among the
140 breeds then recognized by the AKC. Just about one out
of every one hundred dogs registered that year was a bully,
making this dog literally one in a hundred. Bulldog owners,
of course, would add several zeroes to the second figure.
They would
also, no doubt, second the opinion of the bulldog fancier
who declared that "basking in their owner's love, [bullies]
are the happiest creatures alive."
Bulldog
owners, basking in their dogs' love and various sound effects,
insist that if people were more like bulldogs, the world would
be a better place. A rugged civility would reign in place
of crabbiness; tenacity would dispatch timidity; loyalty would
not be based on self-interest; people who snored would have
a ready cover; kids would have a ready playmate; and honesty
would be a virtue, not a policy.
Be True
to Your School
When last
anyone counted, at least 38 institutions of higher learning
- and countless institutions of lower and elementary learning
as well - were known as "The Bulldogs." Many of those schools
are represented by living, breathing, snuffling bulldog mascots.
Perhaps the most famous is Uga (pronounced UH-gah), the mascot
for the University of Georgia.
Uga V,
the latest in a series of Ugas, made news last November when
he tried to bite an Auburn wide receiver who had just caught
a 21-yard pass in the Georgia end zone. As fortune would have
it, the incident was recorded by a photographer covering the
game. Not surprisingly, many Georgia fans wanted a copy. "Seeing
him trying to take a bit of an Auburn player really warmed
by heart," said Montgomery lawyer Randy James, who ordered
a copy of the photo for Christmas.
James
was one of 200 people who wanted to own that Kodak moment.
Others included former Georgia Coach Vince Dooley and Georgia
football trainers, who planned to hang a blowup in the training
room. The image was named the Associated Press of Alabama's
"Photo of the Month" for November, and, in case you did not
hear, Georgia won the game, 56-49, in four overtimes.
Note:
Since the original print publication of this article, Uga
V was succeeded by his son, Uga VI. For the full scoop, visit
http://www.georgiadogs.com/
The
Sum of Its Parts
When the
Ceres [California] High School Class of 1995 asked local builder
and sculptor Bruce Carty to create a statue of the school's
bulldog mascot as its graduation gift, Carty sculpted a six-foot-high,
three-ton concrete canine. A three-ton male canine, to be
exact, and thereby hung a problem in some folks' eyes. One
school board member asked that the certain parts of the dog
be removed before school started in September.
Other
officials said it was no big deal. Carty, for his part, was
opposed to altering his work, which would have required taking
a jackhammer to it.
"I'm totally
against it," he said. "The contract calls for a bulldog. Besides,
I don't think they want to be known as the school with no...
uh, pride."
Carty
won out, and life went on at Ceres High, whose seniors have
added insouciance to insult by painting the bulldog's offending
parts blue on occasion.
Phil
Maggitti is a freelance writer and editor living in a
land of virtual reality. His forwarding address is http://home.ptd.net~heyphil/
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