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On rat-killing by dogs as a sport in pits in
public houses
The proprietor (Jimmy Shaw) of one of the largest sporting public-houses in
London, who is celebrated for the rat-matches which come off weekly at his
establishment, was kind enough to favour me with a few details as to the quality
of the animals which are destroyed in his pit. His statement was certainly one
of the most curious that I have listened to, and it was given to me with a
readiness and courtesy of manner such as I have not often met with during my
researches …
The poor people who supply me with rats, what you may call barn-door labouring
poor, for they are the most ignorant people I ever come near. Really you would
not believe people could live in such ignorance. Talk about Latin and Greek,
sir, why English is Latin to them - in fact, I have a difficulty to understand
them myself. When the harvest is got in, they go hunting the hedges and ditches
for rats. Once the farmers paid two pence a-head for all rats caught on their
grounds, and they nailed them up against the wall. But now that the rat-ketchers
can get three pence each by bringing the vermin up to town, the farmers don’t
pay them anything for what they ketch, but merely give them permission to hunt
them in their stacks and barns, so that they no longer get their two pence in
the country, though they get their three pence in town.
I should think I buy in the course of the year, on average, from 300 to 700 rats
a-week. (… this gives a yearly purchase of 26,000 live rats) That’s what I
kill taking all year round, you see. Some first-class chaps will come here in
the day-time, and they’ll try their dogs. They’ll say “Jimmy, give the dog
100.” After he’s polished them off they’ll say, perhaps “Hang it, give
him another 100.” … I’ve had noble ladies and titled ladies come here to
see the sport - on the quiet, you know …
I’ve had as many as 2000 rats in this very house at one time. They’ll
consume a sack of barley-meal a week, and the brutes, if you don’t give ‘em
good stuff, they’ll eat one another, hang ‘em!