Ghostsword
Well-Known Member
It was not fci that messed up the neo, but buyers. buyers want wrinkly and unnaturally build dogs, and the breeders complied. Same reason some people mixed the fila with other breeds. People want, and pay for, larger dogs, closer to the ideal of a mastiff they have so that is what will be produced. With dogs demand drives design.
There is documented history that the bloodhound of the 1800's was way more fierce than the Fila, and even in the southern states, filas were used chase slaves and they would do less damage to "property" than what a bloodhound would do. The word Fila means to catch and hold, so maybe the original work the fila had could have been to catch people, and later when slavery was abolished used for other reasons. Cattle ranches only become established after slavery was abolished in 1888 (in brasil), so a lot if time has passed before the Fila standard was written. But the fila is old. They found some written board dated to the time of the railway slave escape groups that had the words "fila bites people" so the term fila existed before the slave emancipation in the US.
For Fila a large amount of information available is in portuguese, it has helped me a lot, but I will look for more, there has to be more on old books about the plantations, I will just need to find them.
Found this site with a great concise explanation of where we are with the fila today, and where the fila comes from.
You will not find better in english:
http://sombraultrajantefilas.com/the-fila-brasileiro-brief-history.html
___________________________
Luis
@ghostsword
There is documented history that the bloodhound of the 1800's was way more fierce than the Fila, and even in the southern states, filas were used chase slaves and they would do less damage to "property" than what a bloodhound would do. The word Fila means to catch and hold, so maybe the original work the fila had could have been to catch people, and later when slavery was abolished used for other reasons. Cattle ranches only become established after slavery was abolished in 1888 (in brasil), so a lot if time has passed before the Fila standard was written. But the fila is old. They found some written board dated to the time of the railway slave escape groups that had the words "fila bites people" so the term fila existed before the slave emancipation in the US.
For Fila a large amount of information available is in portuguese, it has helped me a lot, but I will look for more, there has to be more on old books about the plantations, I will just need to find them.
Found this site with a great concise explanation of where we are with the fila today, and where the fila comes from.
You will not find better in english:
http://sombraultrajantefilas.com/the-fila-brasileiro-brief-history.html
___________________________
Luis
@ghostsword