Richard Stratton Has Died at Age 94

Richard Stratton was a lover of Pit Bulls and — arguably — knew more about the type than anyone alive.

Writing in the December 2010 edition of “The Sporting Dog Journal,” Stratton note of two Peter Paul Rubens paintings shown here:

“Locked fast on the back of a large wild boar is a dog that could win a modern ADBA show!”

Yes indeed.

Stratton asks:

“Why did depictions of dogs doing the same type of thing for which our dogs are so renowned look just like our modern-day dogs?”

And how could that be when there were no terrier breeds at all 400 years ago?

Stratton notes that in Elizabethan England “terriers” were not a canine taxonomic category, but a canine TAX category:

“It is important to understand that the term terriers was not well defined in the writings about dogs of the 19th century. In general, the dogs that went after vermin in the ground were called terriers. These were generally the dogs of the lower classes. In Elizabethan times, there was something of a caste system. Generally, it was the people of royalty who owned land, and they were the only ones. Other people lived on the land, but as game became more scarce with the increase in human population, desirable game, such as deer and wild boar, were not supposed to be hunted by the general population, as these animals belonged to the king (or some other royal person), and the peasants were forbidden to hunt them. Often, they” were even forbidden to own hunting dogs. However, they could own terriers, as these dogs were useful in keeping the rat population down or in hunting less desirable game.

“But what were terriers? Normally, they were just small dogs with a strong prey drive.”

Stratton notes that because bulldogs were taxed and regulated as hounds (and prohibited from ownership by commoners), calling a smaller bulldog a terrier was a common dodge.