Monkey-baiting

[1] The following occurrence is from The Sporting Magazine in the year 1799: This monkey-baiting inspired the famous English animal painter, Samuel Howitt, to illustrate this account in the engraving entitled The Battle of the Bulldog and the Monkey circa 1799, which preserved this fight for future generations.

Jacco Macacco was a fighting ape or monkey who was exhibited in monkey-baiting matches at the Westminster Pit in London in the early 1820s.

According to William Pitt Lennox : His mode of attack, or rather of defence, was, at first, to present his back or neck to the dog, and to shift and tumble about until he could lay hold on the arm or chest, when he ascended to the windpipe, clawing and biting away, which usually occupied him about one minute and a half, and if his antagonist was not speedily with drawn, his death was certain; the monkey exhibited a frightful appearance, being deluged with blood - but it was that of his opponent alone; as the toughness and flexibility of his own skin rendered him impervious to the teeth of the dog.

[2]Lennox writes that after several fights, Jacco adapted his technique and would overcome his canine opponents by leaping directly on their backs and manoeuvring himself into a position where he could tear at their windpipes while remaining out of reach of their jaws.

The following is a fictionalized account by Pierce Egan from Life in London in which his heroes, Tom and Jerry, visit the Westminster Pit in the year 1820: Jacco had finished off fourteen dogs in a row, but then he was challenged by a canine named Puss, who had a similar record.