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Photo 36 - Year 1890. General Candido Rondon with the indians 
Nhambiquaras and his black Fila "cabeçudo onceiro" 
(tiger hunter large head) - AFRICANO. See text.

Years 1890-911, at the time Colonel Candido Rondon has the first contact in Mato Grosso ( Brazil Center) with Nhambiquaras indians. They lived nudes and were recently pacificated. Later, General Rondon, engineer, did an extraordinary work, directing the services to go through the center-west of Brazil with the Telegraphic lines. For the first time, a large area of the country were showed, up to Pará. An area bigger than France and Germany together.

Rondon and his men had to go through the jungle, facing savages animals, mainly the tigers (150-200 kgs.). The solution was the Fila dogs, specially trained to persecute the tigers and put them up on a tree, where they were shot or killed with a "zagaia" ( a large stick, with a point). In photo 36, we see his black Fila, AFRICANO, chief of the pack of Filas, or, in other words, the dog specially trained and the others dogs followed him.

During year 1914, Theodore Roosevelt, at the time, President of United States and famous hunter, came to Brazil to hunt tigers in Mato Grosso, with the help of Colonel Rondon. Their adventures were related in a book: "Through the Brazilian Wilderness" , London, 1914. Roosevelt didn't like the hounds, which he received to help him for the hunting. He considered them inferiors, compared with the hounds he used to hunt in the low Mississipi, He makes exception to one dog ( a black Fila) so good as the american hounds he knew. All the male dogs were castrated. Roosevelt observed about the ridiculous habit of castrate their hunting dogs. And he said: "This is not the way that a dog which shows valorous is not used as a stud, with the theory that they will live longer".

A FINAL COMMENT:

After reading and analized what was written, including observing the photos showed, we must ask: it's valid, there are scientific basis to destroy a pool of genes formed during centuries, following the development of this continental country like Brazil? The Fila dog, the actual FILA BRASILEIRO follows men penetration conquering lands, fighting against all kinds of difficulties hunting the large tigers and others savages animals, being a cattle dog, a guardian dog.

Admire how the FILA BRASILEIRO is beautifull, it's the more harmonic of the Moloser dogs and we may love it, doesn't matter if it is yellow, brindle or ... black. As said Shakespeare: "Black men are pearls in beautous ( beautifull ) ladies'eyes ( The "Cavaliers of Verona " , act V) .

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We ask exchange of informations, photos and the localization of black Filas in any part of the world. In Brazil we ask the same, but more specially dogs which lived before year 1940.