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 Cuban Bloodhound 

Russian Bloodhound, Siberian Bloodhound, Spanish Bloodhound
 

   One normally thinks of the bloodhound as being quite an affable creature, keen as mustard on the trail and equally as keen to give any captured miscreants a good licking all over, but the Cuban Bloodhound was a different kettle of fish altogether, noted more for its ferocity than any uncanny scenting ability.

    Used extensively throughout the Caribbean and the South-Eastern states of America, stories abound about the Cuban Bloodhound's ability to hunt down and kill escaped slaves.  Recalcitrant slaves were sometimes fed to these hounds and Turpin the French tracker based at Haut du Cap in Haiti 'encouraged' his dogs by feeding them a live negro from time to time.  This antipathy towards blacks did not stretch to Amerindians, however, and attempts to sic the hounds onto Indians throughout the Caribbean and North America met with mixed results.  Some areas would use foxhounds to hunt down the runaways, but the dogs merely caught them and sometimes allowed them to re-escape so the Cuban bloodhounds were introduced into these areas,  This lead to a lot of 'strangled' slaves as the dogs went for the throat of their human prey, this action in turn lead to the hounds being muzzled but perhaps because of the fierce reputation of these dogs a large percentage of recaptured slaves suffered vagal inhibition.  Bartolome De Las Casas writing in 1513 said "... it was resolved to march against the indians who had fled to the mountains, and they were chased like wild beasts with the assistance of bloodhounds, who had been trained to a thirst for human blood, so that before I left the island it had become almost entirely a desert."

While DH Richardson writing in 1851 has this to say: "a parade of the chasseurs was ordered, and they were taken to a distance from the house, in order to be advanced when the guard alighted. On his arrival, the commissioner (who had procured the dogs), having paid his respects, was directed to parade them. The Spaniards soon appeared at the end of a gentle acclivity, drawn out in a line, containing upwards of forty men, with their dogs in front, unmuzzled, and held by cotton ropes. On receiving the command “fire," they discharged their fusees, and advanced as upon a real attack. This was intended to ascertain what effect would be produced on the dogs if engaged under a fire of the Maroons. The volley was no sooner discharged than the dogs rushed forward with the greatest fury, amidst the shouts of the Spaniards, who were dragged on by them with irresistible force. Some of the dogs, maddened by the shout of attack while held back by the ropes, seized on the stocks of the guns in the hands of their keepers, and tore pieces out of them. Their impetuosity was so great that they were with difficulty stopped before they reached the general, who found it necessary to get into the chaise from which he had alighted, and if the most strenuous exertions had not been made, they would have seized upon his horses.”

Chasseur with Cuban Bloodhounds, Freeman and Whiting, 1858

The author then goes on to describe a training method (he refers to the breed as Spanish Bloodhounds): "In the last war carried on against the revolted negroes, or Maroons, as they were called, they employed bloodhounds regularly trained against them, and they are even said to have had the barbarity of throwing their captives to the dogs to be devoured alive. In training the hounds to this inhuman pursuit, we are told that they were confined in a kennel sparred like a cage, and sparingly supplied with the blood of other animals. The figure of a negro in wickerwork (presumably the author means a figure wearing the clothes of a labourer), stuffed with blood and entrails, was next provided as they grew a little older, and occasionally exhibited in the upper part of the cage. The dogs ferociously struggled against their confinement, and, as their impatience increased, the effigy was brought nearer and nearer, while their usual subsistence underwent still greater diminution. At length it was resigned to them, and while voraciously tearing it up, and devouring the contents, the caresses of the keepers encouraged their perseverance. Thus their animosity to black men was excited in proportion to their attachment to the whites; and they were sent out to the chase when their training was considered complete. The miserable negro had no means of escape. He was either hunted down and torn to pieces (his wife and children sharing perhaps his calamity), or, if taking refuge on a tree, he was betrayed by the yelping of the bloodhounds into the power of his more savage pursuers. This, however, was not the full extent of the evil. “ But, indifferently kept in the neighbourhood of Cape Francois, the dogs frequently broke loose, and infants were devoured in an instant from the public way. At other times they proceeded to the neighbouring woods, and surprised a harmless family of labourers at their simple meal, tore the babe from the breast of its mother, or devoured the whole party, and returned with their horrid jaws drenched in the gore of those who were acknowledged, even in the eyes of the French army, as innocent, and therefore permitted to furnish them with the produce of their labours.”

Muzzled Cuban bloodhounds

 

Their description in 1840 was as follows:

    "So various are these dogs in colour, shape, size, and age, that, at first sight, they appear like an ordinary pack barking about a planter's dwelling; but examination proves them quite another thing. To describe a dog so as to be understood is difficult; I must, therefore, convey a general Idea, by requesting you to imagine a short-haired, black, red, yellow, brindled, or spotted dog, or any colour that ever bedecked the species, twenty-four inches high, and thirty-six Inches long, (or thereabouts,) with a head, breast, fore-legs, and shoulders like a light-made mastiff, and snout somewhat elongated, ears erect, like a greyhound, (mostly cropped where they bend) and toes, croup haunches and tail like a greyhound, only thicker set. This combination, you may conceive, produces an animal of great nerve, strength and agility; and such, to all appearances, are these bloodhounds. They are thirty-four in number - five or six old dogs, well trained - the remainder younger - some, I should think, not a year old; one of these, a lady bloodhound, walked about the village with me as familiarly and lovingly as a spaniel, but her kindness was inoperative upon the rest of her clan, for such a set of ferocious beasts I never before saw. That modern Daniel, Van Amburgh, who goes among lions, would stand no chance among them. When any living thing approaches one of the older dogs, his eyes flash, he roars with rage, and twists like a serpent to escape from his chain; the keepers have them under subjection, but have frequently to maintain quiet order by inflicting heavy blows with a cudgel."    From The Florida Herald, February 19th, Signed Talahassee, 28th January, 1840.  Via Trove.

The throat hold

  It's possible that the 'Spanish war dogs' so instrumental as the foundation stock of the Catahoula Leopard Dog were of this breeding, though Clifford (doggie) Hubbard (1945) describes the Cuban Bloodhound thus "A large and ferocious Dog de Bordeaux x Bloodhound crossbred, manufactured for hunting fugitive slaves ..."

  Some commentators on pre-twentieth century dogs appear to confuse the Cuban Bloodhound with the Cuban Mastiff but the latter breed was a black-muzzled, tawny dog used as a catch dog (or seizer) by hog hunters in the Caribbean region and the Southern states of America.  One correspondent to the Spectator explained the difference between the two breeds in 1898, describing the Cuban Bloodhound as being bred more for stamina.  His description of the hounds at the end of the nineteenth century describe a dog more similar to the Black and Tan Coonhound than to a mastiff.

Despite the following links coming from a variety of nineteenth century sources the pictures could all have been modelled by the same dog so similar are they in conformation, if not colour.
Chasseur and Cuba bloodhounds
Harlequin patterned Cuban Bloodhound
Black Cuban Bloodhound
Fawn Cuban Bloodhound

"HORRIBLE MURDER OF A SLAVE. - A fiend in human shape, named Thomas Motley, has been convicted at Walterborough, S.C., for the murder of a runaway slave.  It was proved on the trial that he first shot the slave, wounding him severely, and then whipped him; after which he put him in a vice, and subjected him to the most excruciating torture.  He then set him loose, started blood-hounds after him, who ran him down, mangling him horribly, and finally cut him up and fed the dogs with his flesh."  From The Ohio Star, 30 Nov. 1853.  These so-called 'bloodhounds' were almost certainly the bloodthirsty, bullmastiff-type dogs used to control the slaves.  Scurrilous Amateur Blogger supplies an impressive, in-depth account of the difference between the (English) bloodhound and the Cuban/Siberian/Spanish/Russian bloodhound.

  While the French and Spanish authorities appear to have had very little compunction whatsoever in employing the hounds, American and British agencies seemed to have had serious reservations on their use.  As is shown by this newspaper article:
Debate on the use of Cuban Bloodhounds to eradicate Indians in The Florida War
The Madisonian (Washington D.C.) April 04, 1840
Via CHRONICLING AMERICA

References.

The Observers Book of Dogs, Clifford L. B. Hubbard, 1947.
Frederick warne & Co. Ltd., London.

The development of the dog, D. Brian Plummer, 1995.
The Boydell Press.

Anecdotes of dogs, Edward Jesse.
Henry G. Bohn, Covent Garden, London, 1858.

Natural History

The Dog, H. D, Richardson, Wm. S. ORR & CO., Amen Corner, 1851

http://thetruthaboutpitbulls.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/scapegoats-part-1-bloodhound.html

http://www.molosserdogs.biz/content2985.html

Chest of Books

Charwynne Dog Features 

Comparison between the Cuban Bloodhound and the Cuban Mastiff

Dogs of the conquest

"You Should Give Them Blacks to Eat": Waging Inter-American Wars of Torture and Terror.
Sara E. Johnson, 2009.
Published by John Hopkins University Press.

Modelling chasseurs

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