Greyhound Dog History: Part 2 of 4

Throughout Part I of our dialogue concerning the past and beginning of the Greyhound breed we brought up their natural speed which helped them become wonderful game hunters in the lands of North Africa and Arabia, as well as sport racers in the lands of Egypt. And since Greyhounds were of high value to people, they were commonly given as gifts and traded with caravan traders which brought them to the rest of the world.

There became a breed of Greyhound that most resembles our current look of the dog breed known as sighthounds. The quintessential sighthound is the Greyhound of today. In fact, the sighthounds of Greece, Rome and Britain are the breed that most resemble today's Greyhounds.

By the time the Saxon era came along, the Greyhounds in Britain had very high status in value to the masses. These dogs had the ability both feed the family and offer the people nobility for the sport of the chase.

Fascinatingly enough, 1014 marked the year that the start of a four-century-length phase of the Greyhound history. It was named as the "Enactment of the Forest Laws". This meant that serfs and slaves had no rights to own a Greyhound dog.

Within the Forest Laws, the Greyhound type of dog was only to be owned and raised by freemen. Those who did possess a Greyhound dog living close to the royal forests had to have their dogs maimed by having 3 toes on the paw removed or by severing the dog's knee ligaments.

For what reason was this unkind and strange practice of disfiguring the Greyhound? Because this law was initiated to stop a common folk from hunting game for food at the price of royal sport.