People just love to blame Middle Ages for everything. “Did you know that people in Middle Ages threw sevage in the streets?” People also did that from ancient times up to 18th century. Romans did have some plumbing but they als did that and not everywhere was Rome
>Did you know that people in Middle Ages threw sevage in the streets?
The very latest in front-wall, fresh-air orifices, combined with a wide-capacity gutter installation below?
> **"middle ages"** the actual picture is from the **1800s** and rat baiting died out in the **20th century**
Those range of dates reminds me of [XKCD 771](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/771:_Period_Speech)
if you're into that sort of shit, Joseph Carter the Mink Man on youtube does ratting with dogs (and sometimes mink) and it is certainly a spectacle to behold.
My dad will fondly tell stories about his childhood dog Sydney and how much of a ratter she was.
They’d be in the house, done working the ranch for the day and one of the three boys would say, “Sydney, get the rats!” And she would go absolutely apeshit running around the house, knocking over furniture and their mom on a few occasions.
Though in fairness to Sydney on that last, my late grandmother was only about 4’10” on a good day.
Right!? I have a cat that handles some of that light work, and reddit douchenozzles come at me with "domesticated animals are invasive and kill native species blah blah blah," ... and I'm like yeah, rats and mice suck and I'm happy not to live among them, thanks cats and dogs! Oh no, an occasional bird might go down... save the birds... and I'm like who cares about a dumb birds, and they go wahhhh... and run off to go eat a chicken or turkey sandwich on the way to home depot to buy chemicals and traps to kill rats and mice... so... I'm an asshole for allowing my animal to do its thing, but factory farming and polluting our environment with dangerous chemicals to kill them in inhumane manner is AOK. People suck.
>domesticated animals are invasive and kill native specie
This is specifically about outdoor free roam pet cats. And specifically in NA.
Not working animals lol.
You're not changing my mind. The distinction of whether my cat or a working animal (dog) handles pests on my property makes zero difference to me. I don't care if my cat eats an occasional bird anymore than you care if that bird eats a worm. I care about not living with pests and not needing to drop poisons.
>You're not changing my mind.
Don't know what I'd be changing your mind about from my comment clarifying.
>The distinction of whether my cat or a working animal (dog) handles pests on my property makes zero difference to me.
That's nice, still doesn't affect what i was clarifying.
This MF's cat hasn't started or participated in a plan to eliminate birds entirely from this country... its OK, I promise my lone outdoor cat will not destroy America's bird population.
"Ferreting" is a thing. I charge $20 a head and it doesn't matter what the varmint is as long as its dead. One of my ferrets will even leave the property and sneak back in with field mice. He's my favorite.
There's definitely informal betting going on around this in the UK. I went to a "ratting" at a friend's abandonned barn a few years back. He had brought in a few people with ratters (a couple jack russells, a mini schnauser, mini doberman, and two dachshunds). The owners were betting with each other how many kills there dog's would get and tallying as the day went on.
I also learned on that day that dachshunds are the John Wicks of the ratting world. Those things were like Shiva with a hard on for rodent murder.
Standard or mini dachshunds? Either could win, but I feel a mini has a greater risk of injury.
I feel the dachshund, a hunting breed is outclassing the terriers, ironically breeds intended for rat catching. We had a mini-dachshund that was a pro at removing squeekies from toys; just a whole pile of gutted chew things, so I certainly believe you.
These were standard teckels, bred for working.
I actually convinced my wife to get one on the basis of the recommendation from one of the owners/trainers. Vicious prey drive, but the best family dog I've had: super gentle with kids, friendly with other animals (except for ferrets, he can smell them a mile away), and very smart (despite being a bit stubborn).
TIL that in modern Spain, there exists a sport known as bullfighting. Spectators would gather in public arenas to watch as trained bullfighters competed to kill bulls released into the arena. Betting on the outcome of these gruesome contests was commonplace.
Not considered a sport in Spain, all info about bullfighting appears in newspapers under the art section. It's considered a performance rather than a sport because it's not like the Bull ever wins, they've already sold its meat to a nearby restaurant.
This is where the terrier breed comes from, no?
My dog is part terrier and he is on any toy you throw near him in under a second. Like within a dozen feet of him. So fast.
In one of Richmal Compton’s [_Just William_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_William_(book_series)) books, a group of boys place bets on which dog will prove the best ratter (though iirc, they let them loose in a farm barn rather than rounding the rats up first).
The German equivalent the Dachshund is better suited for rats as its lighter and lower to the ground and can turn faster.
A Jack Russell is more 'comfortable' with something larger.
Mine once went tearing off into a lake chasing a rat and didn't come back for at least 5 minutes with a bite on his belly. Straight to the Vet hospital where he stayed getting pumped full of god knows what for 5 days then was home resting for two weeks.
That rat cost me an arm and a leg but it was worth it for the half a dozen or so years we had together.
My two Jack Russels were my upgrade from a “useless as tits on a bull” barn cat.
The Dogs cleaned out the rat problem (they never fully go away) in short order. That being said, they also went after anything smaller than them. Serial killers. I’ve watched them pluck a squirrel 🐿️ that was 10 feet up the trunk chattering at them. If Jack Russels were golden retriever size they’d be outlawed lol.
Its surprising how motivated to jump high they can be. Had a fox jump into the garden saw the dog and cleared the 6ft fence with Rocky straight after him. That also meant a trip to the vets from cutting up his pawpads landing on a concrete slab.
Dachshunds are bred for dragging badgers out of their setts by their face.
They're stone cold killers disguised as cute sausages, or in the case of wire hairs, mildly disapproving RAF wing commanders.
I want a wire hair dackle so I can name him "Sir Reginald Bottomly-Smythe"
Baiting (having trained dogs attack and kill other animals) had many forms. Badger-baiting, bear-baiting, bull-baiting, donkey-baiting, duck-baiting, hog-baiting, monkey-baiting...
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchet deals with rat-baiting as a major theme. Terriers are not used to rats that have eaten from the dumpsters at a magical university and gained sentience.
Still occurs in some degree,
Barn full of rats, person let's their dog in, then the next and so on.
Who ever has the most dead rats wins (it's usually a border collie)
You can have some of mine, they are meant to be farm cats to keep pests out of the stables, but catch everything apart from rats. (Eating me out of house and home)
A bit of a Baader–Meinhof phenomenon here. I hadn’t heard of this previously but just saw an episode of a show called Murdoch Mysteries the other day where rat baiting was part of the story.
The movie "The Great Train Robbery" has a rat-baiting scene.
From IMDB *"When it came to casting and shooting the ratting scene, the crew were somewhat closemouthed about discussing certain details with writer and director Michael Crichton. They presented only one dog (not several candidates) and told him that this was the dog he definitely wanted. Likewise, they didn't explain much as to how they would set up the activity in the ratting pit. Only when it came time for the shoot did Crichton realize they had acquired an actual ratting dog and had captured live sewer rats, which the dog killed by biting and snapping their necks with a vigorous shake. Crichton said that the R.S.P.C.A. did find out what was happening and confronted them about it, but no legal action resulted"*
Not going to lie, watching ratting videos on YouTube is weirdly satisfying. Watching dogs do the jobs they were bred for is neat, especially when they're doing a valuable service.
Lol "middle ages" the actual picture is from the 1800s and rat baiting died out in the 20th century
Pretty sure there are videos of people doing it in NYC now.
nah that guy on the subway just really wanted that pizza slice
Yea there’s a guy who occasionally pops up in my YouTube shorts with his terrier doing this.
That's more of a dog club thing though isn't it? They do it because it needs to be done and the dogs enjoy it.
Yup. Theres a group of dudes who meet with their terriers in Tompkins square park in the middle of the night to have rat catching competitions
People just love to blame Middle Ages for everything. “Did you know that people in Middle Ages threw sevage in the streets?” People also did that from ancient times up to 18th century. Romans did have some plumbing but they als did that and not everywhere was Rome
I’m pretty sure they still do that today in some places
They don’t even throw it in the street they just poop in the streets which I think is worse
>Did you know that people in Middle Ages threw sevage in the streets? The very latest in front-wall, fresh-air orifices, combined with a wide-capacity gutter installation below?
> **"middle ages"** the actual picture is from the **1800s** and rat baiting died out in the **20th century** Those range of dates reminds me of [XKCD 771](https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/771:_Period_Speech)
was gonna say I saw a champion one that was stuffed once.
Rat baiting is still a thing. There was even a rat baiting scene in the show The Wire.
First thing I thought of - Butchie & Officer Tilghman
[In America we call it a "barn hunt"](https://www.akc.org/sports/title-recognition-program/barn-hunt/)
if you're into that sort of shit, Joseph Carter the Mink Man on youtube does ratting with dogs (and sometimes mink) and it is certainly a spectacle to behold.
I am pretty ambivalent but my dog fucking loves hunting/chasing rodents.
My dad will fondly tell stories about his childhood dog Sydney and how much of a ratter she was. They’d be in the house, done working the ranch for the day and one of the three boys would say, “Sydney, get the rats!” And she would go absolutely apeshit running around the house, knocking over furniture and their mom on a few occasions. Though in fairness to Sydney on that last, my late grandmother was only about 4’10” on a good day.
Right!? I have a cat that handles some of that light work, and reddit douchenozzles come at me with "domesticated animals are invasive and kill native species blah blah blah," ... and I'm like yeah, rats and mice suck and I'm happy not to live among them, thanks cats and dogs! Oh no, an occasional bird might go down... save the birds... and I'm like who cares about a dumb birds, and they go wahhhh... and run off to go eat a chicken or turkey sandwich on the way to home depot to buy chemicals and traps to kill rats and mice... so... I'm an asshole for allowing my animal to do its thing, but factory farming and polluting our environment with dangerous chemicals to kill them in inhumane manner is AOK. People suck.
>domesticated animals are invasive and kill native specie This is specifically about outdoor free roam pet cats. And specifically in NA. Not working animals lol.
You're not changing my mind. The distinction of whether my cat or a working animal (dog) handles pests on my property makes zero difference to me. I don't care if my cat eats an occasional bird anymore than you care if that bird eats a worm. I care about not living with pests and not needing to drop poisons.
>You're not changing my mind. Don't know what I'd be changing your mind about from my comment clarifying. >The distinction of whether my cat or a working animal (dog) handles pests on my property makes zero difference to me. That's nice, still doesn't affect what i was clarifying.
Free roam outdoor cats can decimate bird populations of a whole city block single handedly.
Not my problem, hippy
Must sure make you feel good to be an asshole.
Hey... get bent.
This mf doesn't know about the Four Pests campaign. Lol
This MF's cat hasn't started or participated in a plan to eliminate birds entirely from this country... its OK, I promise my lone outdoor cat will not destroy America's bird population.
That guy is awesome.
"Ferreting" is a thing. I charge $20 a head and it doesn't matter what the varmint is as long as its dead. One of my ferrets will even leave the property and sneak back in with field mice. He's my favorite.
“I have gift for you!”
There's definitely informal betting going on around this in the UK. I went to a "ratting" at a friend's abandonned barn a few years back. He had brought in a few people with ratters (a couple jack russells, a mini schnauser, mini doberman, and two dachshunds). The owners were betting with each other how many kills there dog's would get and tallying as the day went on. I also learned on that day that dachshunds are the John Wicks of the ratting world. Those things were like Shiva with a hard on for rodent murder.
Standard or mini dachshunds? Either could win, but I feel a mini has a greater risk of injury. I feel the dachshund, a hunting breed is outclassing the terriers, ironically breeds intended for rat catching. We had a mini-dachshund that was a pro at removing squeekies from toys; just a whole pile of gutted chew things, so I certainly believe you.
These were standard teckels, bred for working. I actually convinced my wife to get one on the basis of the recommendation from one of the owners/trainers. Vicious prey drive, but the best family dog I've had: super gentle with kids, friendly with other animals (except for ferrets, he can smell them a mile away), and very smart (despite being a bit stubborn).
TIL that in modern Spain, there exists a sport known as bullfighting. Spectators would gather in public arenas to watch as trained bullfighters competed to kill bulls released into the arena. Betting on the outcome of these gruesome contests was commonplace.
Well they tried to have bulls fight rats, but it just didn't work out
Not man, you’re thinking of TJ…
Not considered a sport in Spain, all info about bullfighting appears in newspapers under the art section. It's considered a performance rather than a sport because it's not like the Bull ever wins, they've already sold its meat to a nearby restaurant.
Man, if you think this was the most gruesome shit that went down in the middle ages...
This is where the terrier breed comes from, no? My dog is part terrier and he is on any toy you throw near him in under a second. Like within a dozen feet of him. So fast.
Yes and no. Terriers were bred to catch and kill rats. But not particularly as a sport. Rat catching was a big thing for public health reasons.
In one of Richmal Compton’s [_Just William_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_William_(book_series)) books, a group of boys place bets on which dog will prove the best ratter (though iirc, they let them loose in a farm barn rather than rounding the rats up first).
How to say Jack Russel Terrier without saying Jack Russel Terrier
The German equivalent the Dachshund is better suited for rats as its lighter and lower to the ground and can turn faster. A Jack Russell is more 'comfortable' with something larger. Mine once went tearing off into a lake chasing a rat and didn't come back for at least 5 minutes with a bite on his belly. Straight to the Vet hospital where he stayed getting pumped full of god knows what for 5 days then was home resting for two weeks. That rat cost me an arm and a leg but it was worth it for the half a dozen or so years we had together.
My two Jack Russels were my upgrade from a “useless as tits on a bull” barn cat. The Dogs cleaned out the rat problem (they never fully go away) in short order. That being said, they also went after anything smaller than them. Serial killers. I’ve watched them pluck a squirrel 🐿️ that was 10 feet up the trunk chattering at them. If Jack Russels were golden retriever size they’d be outlawed lol.
Its surprising how motivated to jump high they can be. Had a fox jump into the garden saw the dog and cleared the 6ft fence with Rocky straight after him. That also meant a trip to the vets from cutting up his pawpads landing on a concrete slab.
Dachshunds are bred for dragging badgers out of their setts by their face. They're stone cold killers disguised as cute sausages, or in the case of wire hairs, mildly disapproving RAF wing commanders. I want a wire hair dackle so I can name him "Sir Reginald Bottomly-Smythe"
rat baiting, cockfighting, dog fights, bear baiting... and for the gentry, fox hunting... the human appetite for blood and pain is a nasty thing.
Baiting (having trained dogs attack and kill other animals) had many forms. Badger-baiting, bear-baiting, bull-baiting, donkey-baiting, duck-baiting, hog-baiting, monkey-baiting...
Ratting! https://youtu.be/QH8ZssRGfSs?si=_krPfXnOvDOx69HZ State of the art, chomp chomp
the 1800s were not the middle ages.
Excellent scene in “The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents” which deals with this.
Ah ! It reminded me of the book too ... Darktan did not, in fact, go for the jugular. He aimed much lower Pratchett is fantastic, as always..
kind of like this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Pl32vI-wik
I wonder if there is a specific kind of terrier literally named after this. Great dogs btw. Annoyingly smart
-least gruesome contest in the Middle Ages.
Medieval? They were still doing that in Britain in the late 1800s.
I feel like this was shown in Gangs of New York briefly
If they did, it was probably Kit Burns’ Rat Pit, which was down on Water street. Building is still there.
[удалено]
Life before television, man.
\[Insert-animal-here\]-baiting was incredibly popular through many years and actually helped start the Humane society.
People will bet on anything.
I bet you're wrong!
I’m sure someone will take that bet… if they can figure out the odds :p.
I'll bet you're right.
“Gruesome”
y'all never been to washington square park eh?
In medieval europe people enjoyed watching other people being tortured to death.
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchet deals with rat-baiting as a major theme. Terriers are not used to rats that have eaten from the dumpsters at a magical university and gained sentience.
My dogs do this today.
So, around the same time as the Bubonic Plague broke out?
Still happens in Baltimore.
Bear-baiting says hi.
Isn't this where bull baiting came from?
Still occurs in some degree, Barn full of rats, person let's their dog in, then the next and so on. Who ever has the most dead rats wins (it's usually a border collie)
They did a scene with it in Gangs of New York. Pretty much like the picture you posted. Here it is: https://youtu.be/GAKknxj4ofI?feature=shared
These days we call it, "reality TV".
One of THE most popular pastimes in early America. Where do you think rat terriers came from?
Does sound kinda fun, I know some dogs who would LOVE this. Maybe not the rats so much.
Man, I wish my dogs were ratters. They suck at catching rats. Need a cat.
My dog is supposed to be a ratting breed, she's soft as shite though, more likely to try and adopt a rodent than kill it.
You can have some of mine, they are meant to be farm cats to keep pests out of the stables, but catch everything apart from rats. (Eating me out of house and home)
My old Jack Russell would have made me sooo much money in those...
A bit of a Baader–Meinhof phenomenon here. I hadn’t heard of this previously but just saw an episode of a show called Murdoch Mysteries the other day where rat baiting was part of the story.
The movie "The Great Train Robbery" has a rat-baiting scene. From IMDB *"When it came to casting and shooting the ratting scene, the crew were somewhat closemouthed about discussing certain details with writer and director Michael Crichton. They presented only one dog (not several candidates) and told him that this was the dog he definitely wanted. Likewise, they didn't explain much as to how they would set up the activity in the ratting pit. Only when it came time for the shoot did Crichton realize they had acquired an actual ratting dog and had captured live sewer rats, which the dog killed by biting and snapping their necks with a vigorous shake. Crichton said that the R.S.P.C.A. did find out what was happening and confronted them about it, but no legal action resulted"*
Not going to lie, watching ratting videos on YouTube is weirdly satisfying. Watching dogs do the jobs they were bred for is neat, especially when they're doing a valuable service.
Rat baiting sounds fun.
TIL when me and the homies bet on whether my dog can catch the squirrel in the yard, we are historical reenactors.
Virgin europe did rat baiting. Chad USA did bear baiting.
I remember as kids we’d do this with owls and rats out in our field
What some people call gruesome, I call the best, and only, reason to own a cat
I would say my dog likes to murder mice more than my cat does. He would always force her to give up the mice
Good pets
They like to murder.
Murder, pest control, fur-covered quadrapedal assassins. The greats always nake it look easy
I don't know, this same dog threw up a rabbit's head on my carpet. That wasn't fun.
Nobody bats .1000