These were hunters when there weren’t the type of scavenger hunter in the forests like there are today.
These were hunters when a man would walk through the forests of Freeport to Mamoral to Tabauite just to get to a hunt. In the space of the early morning hours – alone – and wouldn’t get lost, would be there on time!
These were also some renowned hound’s men! Mr. Pyke being a subscriber to “The Chase” and Ayoub to “The Hunters Horn.”
Quite the politician the pair: because in spite of their rivalry among the hunt, they were actually great patrons of the hound world. Each would from time to time share their subscriptions with the other to expand and confirm blood lines and breeding’s that were reportedly “the best” – a fact I only recently learned.
So it was that Mr. Mohammed brought to Trinidad a pair of dogs almost 4 decades ago whose names are still mentioned today – King and Queen.
What isn’t mentioned is the fact that King never took to the Hunt. He did however sire many pups in Trinidad. Queen on the other hand proved herself well. She died early though and there are some claims that she did birth one litter – but that I can’t confirm.
Personally I don’t mind an import dog, nor a local one – as long as it’s a proper working dog.
One of the best dogs I ever hunted with was a little short eared small “pot hound” in Cedros. That dog hunted till men used to have to drag her out of the swamp - seeing the beast not far off - but men tired to death after beating through the swamp for hours and the dog bleeding from head to toe because of the thick undergrowth. Before that dog died we got a single line from a man in Chattam with a fox hound. She gave birth to a female named "killer" and that became a monster in the bush. They never barked put up or hole, the problem with them was that you had to keep up - because if you shot the beast and it died, those dogs left it there instantly and within minutes they would raise again and t’was another agouti to chase! Better look good for the first one.
Killer was lined (with a dog I can’t recall) and made a handsome “bull” called “Prince” - a champion dog. Unfortunately the man who used to care for them (ah village coke addict) used to take Prince at night to run tattoo and because he was a “piper” he was searching for a tattoo every single night. Eventually Prince started the bad habit of barking matte in the daylight or searching out old tattoo holes he had put up the night before (the coke man used to block the hole and bring home the dog quietly and then go back for the tattoo and pretend he wasn’t using the dog). We gave prince to another guy who said he never saw a dog that could hunt like that. He made litters from Prince but we never followed up.
Moral of the story...
We have local dogs that could outshine any imports. And there are also many good imported dogs as well. The greater problem is that we never pursue a method of registration nor a record of pedigree for local dogs.
From that one female pot hound mix, I verbally described a 2 generation pedigree - but because we never had a registry we lost that blood line.
Maybe there is a dog out there sired by Prince; another monster in the bush - but we will never know! What record is there to follow??
Maybe Prince would have crossed back with a strain from another off line from his grandmother and would have made a legend - maybe we could have named the very first Trinidad blood line. A "Cedros cur" or some fancy name; but because of no local registry, no record of pedigree, we would never know.
Furthermore, because of hunters’ pride and ego and guys wanting to eat up each other and not looking at the broader picture, the sole attempt of establishing such a registry and a pedigree database to be kept and maintained locally is thrown under the table and not taken advantage of by hunters, said registry being Caiere Chase.
So it seems a true Trinidad blood line would never be in the making and importers would always “make style” and bad mouth local dogs.
It's not that we can't put our money where our mouths are, but rather it's because we are too backward to put our money and effort where our own development is.
Somewhere among the relatives are papers that show and confirm King and Queen, papers that 4 decades ago were the pride of Ayoub Mohammed and the Proof of the bloodlines to which they had come from.
Today these papers are worthless, Mr. Mohammed now deceased and no record of where the Bloodline of King is today, nor any way to confirm if queen really did give birth to that fabled litter!
Isn’t it time that we stop being slaves to the mentality that “foreign is better” and to stop depending on the crumbs that all from the cookies of the North Pole and to start building and charting our own legacies and pedigree!
When would this mental slavery end!
Originally published on: Caiere Chase ezine
Posted: Sunday 8th July 2018.
Author: Abby Karim,
Vice-General Secretary All TrinBago Hunters' Network
Caiere Chase, Steering Committee member.
