Dog Bait | The Baiting Sports

Baiting sports were undoubtedly abhorrent pastimes but none the less they are part of canine history and as such it is prudent to look back on how life was lived, and one cannot do that without remembering that such unsavory sports were very much a part of everyday life. Looking at the subject from another viewpoint, perhaps we owe it to the many poor animals who suffered in this way to remember their plight and pledge to do better.

While the baiting of animals may be traced back to early records, it reached its heyday during the Roman Empire, when various wild animals were pitted against each other, or against criminals or professional hunters. It was realized that even the bull could provide spectacle, so various animals which were better known in a domestic environment came to be used as well as wild animals such as lions.

Bull baiting
In England, bull baiting became extremely popular during the middle ages. In the reign of Henry II (1154—89), in the forenoon of every holiday during the winter season, the youth of London amused itself with spectacles of boars matched against each other, and bears being baited by dogs. The first bear garden in London was known as the Paris Gardens and in such venues as this bulls and bears were fastened from behind and then worried by 'great English bull dogs'. This, however, was not without risk to the dogs which were sometimes killed on the spot. Fresh ones were immediately on hand to replace those badly wounded or killed.

When bull baiting was popular, municipal authorities not only gave public approval to these displays but actually enforced them. It was the duty of mayors to see that plenty of animals were provided for the purpose and records of Leicester's town books show an order was made that no butcher was allowed to kill a bull for sale within the town unless it had been baited. At Chesterfield in Derbyshire, a fine of three shillings and four pence was payable if a bull was killed without first being baited in the market-place.

A cruel 'sport'
Samuel pepys viewed the matter with some compassion for in 1666 he described baiting as a 'very rude and nasty pleasure' and wrote of bulls tossing dogs, one of which went into the very boxes. In 1670, John Evelyn tells of bulls tossing a dog into a lady's lap as she sat in the boxes at some considerable height from the arena. He, too, was both weary of and saddened by the pastime. There are vivid pictures of several butchers and other men standing around a tethered bull, holding their dogs by their ears until the sport began. The bull was severely bitten by the dogs, while several dogs were killed having been tossed high into the air by the bull.
Bull-baiting had a particularly strong hold in the Midlands and men went to extreme lengths to obtain their bulls, many a bull being stolen from a neighboring town. Men of Coventry once pawned their church bell and purchased a bull with the money they gained from the bell, but the unholy act met with judgment for the very same bull was stolen by men from Nun Eaton who subsequently baited it.

In Warwickshire the owners of a bull usually charged eight pence for each dog to run at the bull, allowing four or five minutes for the baiting. Much depended on the skill, training and also the breeding of the dogs used. Too plucky a bull dog, lacking discretion, would rush at the bull's face and in consequence was tossed high for his pains. A more accomplished dog would approach from the rear, charging between the animal's legs and pinning him by the nose and lips, retaining his hold with strength and tenacity.

Berkshire was one of the last counties in England where bull-baiting was practiced and Bracknell was particularly famous for it. Every town had its common, where at least once a year much blood of both bulls and dogs was shed. The favorite day of the year for this gruesome sport was Good Friday.

Baiting is banned
Towards the end of the eighteenth century, growing sentiment led to protests against the so-called 'sport', but while some municipalities tried their best to stop baiting, other local authorities held with the old traditions of encouraging it.

Preston seems to have been one of the earliest communities to fight against the sport for, on 11 November 1726, a resolution was passed that no more bulls for baiting were to be purchased with public money. In 1801 Joseph Strut wrote: 'Bull and bear baiting is not encouraged by persons of rank and opulence in the present day, and when practiced, which rarely happens, it is attended only by the lowest and most despicable of the people.' Slowly opinion had begun to change.