page_title: Dogo cubano
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Dogo cubano / History
context_page_description: Dogo cubano, Cuban dogge, Cuban bloodhound and Cuban mastiff are names for an extinct landrace or breed of domestic dogs from Cuba. It was of the dogo sub-type of bullmastiff dog type, which as a general class was used for bull and dog fighting.
  The variety was introduced in Cuba to capture runaway slaves. After the abolition of slavery, they ceased to exist as a distinct population over time.
context_section_description: The Cuban mastiff developed from several breeds of bulldogs, mastiffs and cattle dogs, becoming an ideal fighter and property guardian. It is possible that some specimens of this breed were brought to America, where they were employed as watchdogs. They were also used as slave retrievers by the British during the Second Maroon War, by the French during the Saint-Domingue expedition, as well as the Americans in the Southern States. The British Governor of Jamaica, Alexander Lindsay, 6th Earl of Balcarres, sent emissaries to Havana in early 1795, to purchase 100 animals, after hearing of their successful use by the Spanish in chasing slaves and indigenous people in Cuba. Hundreds of hounds were supplied by Cuban breeders to the French during the Haitian revolt in 1803. 
  The breed has been considered extinct since the end of the 19th century, but there have been reports that state that, although no pure dogos cubanos remain, the dogs used in today's fighting pits in Cuba are descendants of crossbreeding between various pit bull-type dogs, Cordoba dogs, the Dogo Argentino breed, and the few pure dogos cubanos which remained at the beginning of the 20th century. The modern partial-descendants of this extinct dog are much larger and stronger than the original, and resemble the American Pit Bull Terrier breed.
caption: Richard Ansdell, The Hunted Slaves, oil painting, 1861
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