[lit-ideas] Kant's Mastiffs
- From: Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2007 15:31:40 -0700
A Bullmastiff is an ancient cross between the English Mastiff, like
the one you saw, and a Bulldog. It isn't supposed to weigh 200
pounds as one of Rhames Bullmastiff's does but only 130 pounds. It
isn't supposed to be as high at the withers as an English Mastiff.
It was developed to knock a poacher down and hold him for the
game keeper.
'English Mastiff' is another name for a plain old Mastiff, which is,
as Lawrence says, a bit larger than a Bullmastiff. (The origin of the
English Mastiff is simply 'antiquity,' while Bullmastiffs date only from
the 1800s.) Any Bullmastiff that weighs 200 lbs. should go on a
diet. There are numerous mastiffs: French, Argentine, Brazilian,
Spanish, and Neapolitan (Mastino Neapolitano); most of them were bred
for guarding, hunting, or dog fighting. The Encyclopedia of the Dog
says that the Neapolitano is a 'superb drooler.'
Rhames is said to have Bullmastiffs, and a Brazilian Mastiff (Fila
Brasileiro), of which he is especially fond because these dogs had been
'slave catchers'; he is embracing this dog, ?Kong,? at
http://www.usmagazine.com/second_ving_rhames_pos
The dogs that attacked and killed Diane Whipple outside her San
Francisco apartment in 2001 were initially described as Mastiffs,
Bullmastiffs, and English Mastiffs. They turned out to be Preso
Canerios, 'Canary Island Dogs,' although one site says that they were
a 'rare cross' between Presos and Bullmastiffs. Reporters and the
police are seldom dog experts, and often dog owners are not themselves
sure of which breeds they own.
Kant always wanted a dog but he believed the leash laws in Königsberg
denied dogs their autonomy and settled for a parakeet.
Robert Paul
and the aging Terriers
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