rocity. The subsequent public outcry was so great that dog fighting was banned locally, though White reportedly continued supplying gladiators for the illicit sport in secret. By 1835, the English Parliament passed the Cruelty to Animals Act, and dog fighting was banned nationwide. White died that same year, and George lost no time in buying the property and business from White’s widow, renaming the enterprise with his lofty “Canine Castle” moniker. George realized that not only his business, but the Bulldog itself, needed to move in a kindler, gentler direction. And he succeeded on both scores, making a reputation for himself as an honest businessman, and his Bulldogs as docile, loyal companions. “He carried on the business of a dog dealer and breeder in such a way that he became noted as an honourable dealer at a time when dog dealing was looked upon as an occupation whose professors were not particularly noted for their practice of honesty,” wrote Bulldog breed authority Edgar Farman. “… When during the
REMEMBERING
BILL GEORGE,
BRITAIN’S G R E AT E S T DOG DEALER OF ALL TIME CONTINUED FROM PAGE 98
latter part of his life, dog shows became the vogue, his kennel produced dogs as well able to win on the show bench and breed winners, as, formerly, specimens of their strain had been able to hold their own in the dog pit.” The Hallberger’s correspondent, the German poet Ferdinand Freiligrath, described his 1876 tour of the Canine Castle in detail, noting there were some 400 dogs on the premises, and marveling at the sheer variety on display. “Domiciled in great wooden houses, carefully littered down, are superb specimens of other great dogs. Mastiffs, with their black muzzles, and
soft, lowtoned bark; deep-voiced bloodhounds, with great hanging lips, and eyes placed close together, giving them a curiously-vicious aspect to the highest type of the hound …” he wrote. “Magnificent deerhounds, rough of coat, shake their long limbs, and ask with their beautiful eyes for a word of encouragement.” Freiligrath noted that “every variety of sporting dog has its representative” – in one kennel, a pack of Foxhounds; in another, pointers, setters, Otterhounds, Clumber Spaniels and water spaniels. One whole stable was occupied by Bull Terriers, “of all sorts and sizes, revealing more or less in their conformation their relationship to the grand old English bull-dog.” Fox-terriers, just beginning to gain in popularity, were also at hand, “game as a pebble, and sharp as a steel trap.” As for Toy dogs, “tiny pets of all kinds” abounded, from Maltese with silky coats to Italian Greyhounds to Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, which Freiligrath eerily described as “hydrocephaliclooking.” “The chorus raised by the canine magnates of the yard is almost deafening, as ‘Old’ Bill George passes from one to the other, giving a word of kindness here, and a friendly pat there,” he observed, “expatiating by the way on the ‘points’ of the various animals.” George’s business card bore a Bulldog’s head as a crest, and that was quite intentional. Though he sold and bred many breeds, it was with Bulldogs that he made his mark. Indeed, George eventually expanded the breed’s size boundaries in both directions, setting the course for the heavier, modern English Bulldog, and preparing the stage for its diminutive French cousin. In 1840, George imported a Spanish Bulldog, a distinct breed of fighting dog that was known as the Alano on the Iberian PeninCONTINUED ON PAGE 240
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