ABOUT THE CANINE EXHIBITION
Last 27 and 28 of October (1984) was celebrated, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the IV National Canine Exhibition in which diverse breeds competed by the national C.A.C. Day 27 they appeared, outside concourse, the Presas Canarios dogs. The total number in catalogue was of 19 units. Fawn adult males, 4; fawn adult females,1; brindle adult males, 5 - bardinos would say a canarian using his terminology, also berdino -; brindle adult females 4; brindles males puppies 2; brindles females puppies 1; fawns males puppies 2. 19 units only and all of them from Tenerife, none from Gran Canaria.
And how is possible that? They asked themselves some grancanarios fans that travelled to Santa Cruz de Tenerife to be present at this contest. Then, thus was that. Days before the exhibition, the C.E.P.P.C., that is, the president, the secretary and two or three more people -the rest of the partners are mere decorative figures- decided to make a pre- selection of Presas Canarios with the purpose of display in the IV National Exhibition of Tenerife a uniform lot to don’t make the ridiculous facing Madrid. Clear that, at the moment of the selection, they only considered the units of four persons, members, of course, of the club –honored members, as said me an old breeder of presas–.Of Doctor Mario Montequi, 7 dogs, of Juan Cruz Rojas 4, of Juan E. Flores Jorge 3, of Silverio Mesa 2, of Juan J. Alvarez Perez 1, of Luís Hernandez Martín 1, and one more bred by who writes this chronicle, total 19 dogs. And the fathers and the mothers of these units are repeated, as we supposed.
And the typicality. Yes, of course, they said that
there was to consider the typicality. But what typicality?
if what they are breeding, everyone by their side,
is not another thing that the product of crossings with foreign breeds,
crossings that in most of the cases do not go back beyond the second
generation
And the colour. According to the C.E.P.P.C. the coat of the presa canario
must be uniform: fawn and brindle. Why, if the dogs of presa in the Canary
Islands never were selected by the colour but by its qualities in the fight?
The colours in the traditional presas were always very diverse. Complete
black, whites, complete brindles, complete fawns, brindles with white feet,
brindle with white around the neck and in the chest, fawns with white feet
or around the neck, also brownish and ashen. In what seems that there is not
discrepancy is in the length of the hair. In the past they were in
the
majority smooth, nowadays all of them
Clear that the Bullmastiff are fawns or brindles, and this one seems
to be the reason due these men, in partnership, constituted in Club,
say: "the Perro de Presa Canario must be brindle or fawn". Evident that
their dogs born brindles or fawn, and, in addition, very similar to
bullmastiffs.
It seems me that easiest thing had been to massively
import bullmastiffs
from Great Britain and to have displayed them in Tenerife without crossing
like Perro de Presa Canario. And it is very probable that the judges of the
Spanish Canine Society had not realized the fraud, or they would ignore it with
aim of content to the fans.
And finally the sounded presas canarios
appeared at the show. And the judge of the Spanish Canine Society, Mr.
Alvaro de Linaje y de Leon, at the current by the director of the club of
the breed, discoursed microphone in hand, widely and in detail, with a young
unit in front him and at sight of all the public, about how they are/must be the
physical-morphologic characteristics of a good unit of presa canario. And
thus, one after another one was enumerating qualities and defects of the
nineteen units that appeared there. Clear that
nothing of nothing was spoken there about genetics, functionality,
crossings, etc. And at the end of similar spectacle, the finishing touch,
the accolade that seems needed the mentioned club, official accolade?
"follow that way, you have worked very well, congratulations, do not
faint, go ahead", ended up saying Mr. Linaje, that of lineages did not
speak. Is clear that to this IV Exhibition of
Tenerife the true fans of the Perro de Presa Canario did not went. What there
appeared was only one insignificant part of which is breed in Tenerife,
nothing of which are breeding in Gran Canaria, and of course, excepting the
people that concurred to the show with their dogs, nobody had taken
seriously whatever was said there about the type and colours of the Perro
de Presa Canario.
Published by the author the 16 oNovember of 1984 in "El Día" (Tenerife)
