All over the place...........there was one source I read awhile ago that clearly mentioned the use of rat hunting...I will try to locate it..but in the meantime, here are some history facts from various different sources:
Bulldogs were used for all manner of work, including baiting, fighting, stock work, hunting, and farm dog. They were an agreeable animal, capable of extreme ferociousness but unwavering loyalty and gentleness towards humans. They were an animal-aggressive breed, but were routinely used in pairs to bait animals and hunt, so overt aggression towards others of their same species was not an extreme trait.
In 1835, a law was set in motion that would make the sport of baiting illegal, and over the next few years, the activity eventually died down upon enforcement of the law. The people turned to another blood sport--that of dog fighting, and of course people looked to the bulldog as the likely choice for use in the fights. Selective breeding produced a bulldog with heightened dog-aggression, smaller size, and greater agility for performance in a pit that was decidedly smaller than the large areas that baits were typically held in. Hardy, scrappy sporting terriers were crossed into some of the fighting bulldogs to further enhance these traits. The crosses were called bull-and-terriers, half-and-halfs, and pit terriers.
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The breed known as the American Pit Bull Terrier was selectively bred specifically with the idea of it becoming the ultimate canine gladiator. But by virtue of the fact that so much of the breed was made up of versatile bulldog blood, the breed also proved adept at a number of non-fighting activities, including those which the bulldog had been used for.
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As this and other dog sports were developed people selectively breed different dogs to achieve the fighting attributes that they desired. They often mixed these breeds with the great dogs of England also used to bait bulls.
During this time it was thought that the use of the dog on a bull had a tenderizing effect on the meat. In reality this was a myth perpetuated by dog men and gamblers in order to encourage participation and thus draw the profits of gambling.
By the time of the early 1800's due to selective breeding a dog had emerged which was very similar to the American Pit Bull of today. Due to a slow economy and a law which prohibited people of low economic means from owning a sporting dog the practice of bull baiting began to diminish.
In 1835 bull baiting was officially banned. This forced people especially of the lower classes to find alternatives for their dogs. This resulted in a sport known as ratting where a number of rats were placed in a pit for a specified time with the dog. THIS IS IN FACT WHERE THE "PIT" IN THE AMERICAN Pit Bull TERRIER NAME CAME FROM NOT FROM FIGHTING OTHER DOGS. The terrier part of the name came from its ability to hunt small game and was one of the reasons why ratters knew it would excel in the rat Pit. The larger the number of kill the better the dog placed in the match. Due to the constraints of space and the agility of Black & Tan and now extinct White terriers of England these terriers were often being mixed with the old bull baiting dogs to achieve dogs which were premium for these purposes.
It is believed that this practice of mixing bulldog's and terriers began in the town of Staffordshire England and became known as the Staffordshire Bull and terrier.
Due to the agility and gameness of this new found breed many began to also fight dogs with each other. Soon dog on dog fighting and ratting became so popular that practically all Inns and Pubs were equipped with a fighting pit.
As colonization of America and Canada began these people also brought their dogs. These dogs soon became known by the name of "Pit Bull Terriers"
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The ancestors of modern "pit bulls" come from England. The English White Terrier, the Black and Tan Terrier and the Bulldog are supposedly extinct breeds, this occasion stems from their forced retirement; as with many dog breeds, the purpose of these said dogs ceased. We do know, however, that in their own time the English White Terrier, the Black and Tan Terrier and the Bulldog were prized animals, higly adapted to very unsavory, al beit necessary, tasks.
At one time every county in England had its own terrier. Many still exist, however, many have also come to pass or have mutated into a modern breed; such is the case for the English White Terrier and the Black and Tan, whose decandants include the bull-and-terriers, the Fox Terrier, and the Manchester Terrier. Terriers served a very real prupose in England, vermin threatened people in more ways than as providing an unpleasant scare or as unwelcomed guests; in the least Vermin ruined crops and damaged property, at worst they served as a vehicle for The Great Pestilence. Terriers destroyed vermin effieciently and were easy animals to care for. As time went on the sports of badger and rat baiting - among others - caught on. It's from the Terrier that "pit bulls' get their kind nature and juvenal behavior, it is also where the instinct to kill came from.
At the same time, Mastiff type dogs have existed in England for milennia. Their origins are somewhat uncertain, particularly because of myth. It can be assumed, however, that the Celts brought the Mastiff to britain from the continent. It also known that the Normans in troduced the Alaunt. Mastiffs of varying size existed on the Island for years, but it was not until the Renaissance that formal distinctions were made. These dogs were used in battle and for guarding, but they also served utilitarian purposes, such as farm work. Specifically, these dogs accompanied farmers into the fields to assist with bringing bulls in for breeding, castration, or slaughter. The dogs, known generally as bulldogs, protected the farmer by subduing the bull if it attempted to gore him. Typically a dog would do this by biting the bull on the nose and holding on until the bull submitted. Because of the nature of their job, bulldogs were bred to have powerful, muscular bodies, and the resolve to hold onto a violently-struggling bull, even when injured.
Eventually these dogs' purpose inspired the widespread practice of the bloody sports of bull-baiting and bear-baiting. In Elizabethan England, these spectacles were popular forms of entertainment. However, in 1835, bull-baiting and bear-baiting were abolished by Parliament as cruel, and the custom died out over the following years.
United States propaganda poster used during World War I depicting a pit bull
The sport of dog fighting, which could be carried out under clandestine measures, blossomed. Since Bulldogs proved too ponderous and disinterested in dog fighting, the Bulldogs were crossed to English White and Black and Tan Terriers. They were also bred to be intelligent and level-headed during fights and remain non-aggressive toward humans. Part of the standard for organized dog-fighting required that the match referee who is unacquainted with the dog be able to enter the ring, pick up a dog while it was engaged in a fight, and get the respective owner to carry it out of the ring without being bitten. Dogs that bit the referee were culled.
As a result, Victorian fighting dogs (Staffordshire Bull Terriers and, though less commonly used as fighters, English Bull Terriers) generally had stable temperaments and were commonly kept in the home by the gambling men who owned them.
During the mid-1800s, immigration to the United States from Ireland and England brought an influx of these dogs to America, mainly Boston where they were bred to be larger and stockier, working as farm dogs in the West as much as fighting dogs in the cities. The resulting breed, also called the American Pit Bull Terrier, became known as an "all-American" dog. "Pit bull" type dogs became popular as family pets for citizens who were not involved in dog-fighting or farming.
