Roman legions, Boer wagons, lions, Cecil Rhodes: Some dogs being considered for ban by Centre have fascinating histories

The Centre is contemplating a ban on the import, sale and breeding of several exotic dog breeds, which it considers to be ‘ferocious’ and ‘dangerous for human life’, according to media reports.

The Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying has issued a letter to Indian states. It has “requested local bodies to not issue any licences or permit for sale and breeding of such dogs”, the Times of India reported recently.

Those who already have pets of these breeds, will have to get them sterilised.

The Centre’s move comes after several instances of attacks by such breeds, wherein adults and children have been mauled and severely injured in unprovoked attacks.

“After consulting all stakeholders, the Union of India shall decide petitioner’s representation as expeditiously possible,” the Delhi High Court had directed in an order on December 6, 2023.

The court had also ordered the constitution of a committee of experts and animal welfare bodies to look into the issue.

Some of the dog breeds listed by the Centre in the letter include:

Pitbull terriers, American Staffordshire terrier, Fila Brasileiro, Dogo Argentino, American Bulldog, Boerboel, Kangal, Ovcharka, Tornjak, Sarplaninac, Tosa Inu, Akita, Rottweiler, Rhodesian Ridgeback, Wolfdogs, Presa Canario, Akbash and Cane Corso.

The breeds come from every corner of the world and some have been bred over thousands of years by humans, an example of the bond between Canis lupus familiaris and Homo sapiens.

Rome, Riebeeck, De Beers & lions

A number of the breeds the Centre is contemplating to ban originate in the Roman Empire and were used by Roman Legions as they moved across Continental Europe to conquer and subdue ‘Barbarian’ peoples like the Germanic or Celtic tribes.

The Cane Corso and Rottweiler are among these breeds.

The American Kennel Club (AKC), founded in 1884, notes that the Corso and Neapolitan, both Mastiff breeds from the Italian Peninsula, are “descended from Roman war dogs, the canis pugnaces. These dogs were thought to have come from the original Molossers, giant dogs originating from the ancient Greek state of Epirus (located in what’s now Albania), according to breed historian Michael S. Ertaskiran, past president of the Cane Corso Association of America (CCAA)”.

The Club adds:

Roman troops brought the dogs back to their homeland during wars with Macedonia. They began the breeding that would eventually result in two unique warriors — the lighter Cane Corso and the heavier Neapolitan Mastiff. By all accounts, these canine soldiers were fearless. Many were used as piriferi, dogs who charged across enemy lines with buckets of flaming oil strapped to their backs.

The Molosser dogs are also the ancestor of the other breed that the Centre seeks to ban, the Rottweiler. Quite a common sight now in urban India, the Rottweiler originates in the town of Rottweil in today’s southwest Germany — Germania in Roman times and a hotbed of resistance against the legions of Rome.

The Rottweiler was a ‘drover’, according to the AKC. It herded cattle meant for the legions (‘meat on the hoof’) and marched them forward along with the army units.

Here is what the AKC notes about the disposition of the Cane Corso:

Corsi are intelligent, loyal, eager to please, versatile, and intensely loyal to their humans, but are also assertive and willful, and can end up owning an unwitting owner. As with any other big guardian dog, responsible breeding and early socialization with people and other dogs is vital.

On the Rottweiler though, the AKC says the breed’s ‘reputation does not define them’.

“Rottweilers were originally bred to be guard dogs, so they do have the potential to be territorial, but they can also be extremely gentle and loving when they are properly trained and socialized. Training makes all the difference when it comes to a Rottweiler’s temperament,” says the Club.

Some of the other breeds that could be banned have similar reputations: The Boerboel and the Rhodesian Ridgeback.

Interestingly, both were bred in sub-Saharan Africa by European settlers. The Boerboel (meaning ‘Boerdog’) evolved with the first Dutch settlers on the Cape of Good Hope in today’s South Africa, with the founding stock brought by Dutch explorer Jan van Riebeeck in 1652 itself, according to the AKC:

Some of the Boerboel’s ancestors came with the first European settlers in southern Africa: When Jan van Riebeeck arrived in 1652 to work for the tea company that founded the Dutch colony at the Cape of Good Hope, he brought along a Bullenbeisser — literally, “biter of bulls” — a now-extinct breed believed to have been involved in the development of the Boxer as well.

The British, who took over the Cape in 1795, brought their own dogs. It was this mix that gave rise to the Boerboel.

The Boerboel was important for the Boers, ‘Africa’s white tribe’. As Boer wagons moved across the South African veldt and the Karoo, they established farmsteads, villages and towns, whose protection was all-important.

“Life in South Africa was physically taxing and frequently dangerous for humans and dogs alike. Both the Boerboel and its distant cousin the Rhodesian Ridgeback had to be all-purpose dogs, though the Boerboel was more a protection dog that could be called on to hunt, and the Ridgeback just the reverse,” notes the AKC.

The Ridgeback, so called because of its distinctive ‘ridge’, or stripe of backward-growing hair, was created by crossing ridged dogs belonging to the Khoikhoi (the indigenous people of the Cape and cousins of the San/Basarwa) with “European breeds brought by Dutch colonists, including Greyhounds and various Terriers”, says the AKC.

The breed is known for tracking and baying lions, as Rhodesian big-game hunter Cornelius van Rooyen found by crossing “incorporating two ridged Greyhound-like females into his pack of lion dogs” in the late 19th century.

The AKC adds that the dogs could fend off baboons and leopards, trot “effortlessly alongside horse-mounted riders all day, breaking off to course quick-footed game such as antelope to provide meat for the pot, and protecting the homestead from all intruders”.

The Ridgeback is particularly associated with the British colony of Rhodesia in southern Africa, founded by white settlers and named for Cecil Rhodes, the English mining magnate and politician. He is also associated with the diamond mining company De Beers and the Rhodes scholarships at Oxford University. Rhodesia today is part of the independent countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The Rhodesian Ridgebacks played a role in the history of De Beers as well, guarding its mines. As the portal modernmolosser notes:

But Bullmastiffs were not the only breed that De Beers used for protection work — or bred. Rhodesian Ridgebacks were also bred by the diamond conglomerate, which imported some of the earliest registered examples of that breed, too.

Abi Vanak, director of the Centre for Policy Design at ATREE, Bengaluru, however said the real problem lay somewhere else.

“The entire dog breeding industry needs to be heavily regulated. If people want to keep certain breeds of dogs for reasons best known to them, there should be strong registration and breeding rules in place. People who want these dogs should also be held liable if someone else is mauled or injured. There should be a proper framework,” he told Down To Earth.

However, the main problem in India is that millions of free-ranging dogs of non-descript breeds (colloquially known as ‘mongrels’) roam the streets, attacking children and adults and causing road accidents, said Vanak.

“The government should focus on this problem which is a massive crisis. Rather than this ‘band-aid’ for something that is not really a problem,” he added.

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