KEN MOLLETT INTERVIEW: DOGS TODAY MAGAZINE OCTOBER 1997
Ken Mollett believes breeders are jeopardising the future of the breed he has owned and loved for more than 15 years.
In the past, Ken’s bulldogs would start panting and would suffer a virtual respiratory collapse if taken out on even a slightly warm day.”They would lay on their bellies with their tongues hanging out, and they couldn’t even move.” Ken says. “it was very sad. I loved the breed, but I had one who didn’t live to see his fifth birthday. It’s not a shock to read in the Bulldog magazines that a champion has died at four and a half.”
At night, when the hustle and bustle of the city dies down, if one stands on the banks of the Thames and breathes the scent of the river, you can almost hear the panting breath of the Bulldogs of yesterday. You can still drink in pubs that stood when Paris Garden Flourished and walk narrow streets called Paris Garden and Bear Garden, both on the south bank of the Thames by Black friars and Southwark Bridges. Old barges still litter the waterway and streets lined with warehouses centuries’ old clutter the darkness.Only a little imagination is needed to hear the voices and commotion of the men and women, children and dogs, carriages and horses as they jostle to the ghostly theatres and markets, circuses and baits, fairs and jousts. Indeed there are still pubs where night time sees variety acts that could have graced Shakespeare’s era, or Wren’s or Blake’s or even Caesar’s.
Ken Mollett believes breeders are jeopardising the future of the breed he has owned and loved for more than 15 years.
In the past, Ken’s bulldogs would start panting and would suffer a virtual respiratory collapse if taken out on even a slightly warm day.”They would lay on their bellies with their tongues hanging out, and they couldn’t even move.” Ken says. “it was very sad. I loved the breed, but I had one who didn’t live to see his fifth birthday. It’s not a shock to read in the Bulldog magazines that a champion has died at four and a half.”
At night, when the hustle and bustle of the city dies down, if one stands on the banks of the Thames and breathes the scent of the river, you can almost hear the panting breath of the Bulldogs of yesterday. You can still drink in pubs that stood when Paris Garden Flourished and walk narrow streets called Paris Garden and Bear Garden, both on the south bank of the Thames by Black friars and Southwark Bridges. Old barges still litter the waterway and streets lined with warehouses centuries’ old clutter the darkness.Only a little imagination is needed to hear the voices and commotion of the men and women, children and dogs, carriages and horses as they jostle to the ghostly theatres and markets, circuses and baits, fairs and jousts. Indeed there are still pubs where night time sees variety acts that could have graced Shakespeare’s era, or Wren’s or Blake’s or even Caesar’s.
Pictures and Text taken from The Story Of The Real Bulldog
|Book by Robert Jenkins and Ken Mollett
|Book by Robert Jenkins and Ken Mollett
For all technology and advances of modern society, London is unchanged. On the surface it is thriving modern metropolis and one of the Earth’s biggest cities, yet beneath its thin veneer it is still the same as it ever was. The lapping of the night river on the long steps still sighs of faraway places and different times. In the midst of the clamor, there are still silences.Somehow the Bulldog belongs to this ghostly place. The most important feature of the Bulldog is its spirit, and its spirit is older than our language. To see a Bulldog as just a dog is not to see at all. For these reasons there is something uniquely right and fitting in the existence of a breeder called Ken Mollett.
For over 15 years, on the edges of the city, a breeding program has been undertaken. Begun as the hobby of a Bulldog lover tired of the ills and ails that saw several of his earlier Kennel Club-Registered Bulldogs living feeble lives and meeting untimely deaths, the program developed into a fully fledged campaign to turn back the clock on the Bulldog’s health.
With the passing of the years, Graham Woods and Ken Mollett’s brother Derek, both early partners in the program, gave up or sought other goals, but Ken persisted. Using only Bull-Breeds registered with the Kennel Club of Great Britain, and anchoring his program firmly on the modern Bulldog, he set about crossing Stafford’s, Bull mastiffs, Bull Terriers and the healthiest Bulldogs he could find. There were disappointments and mistakes, much hardship and little reward. He selected carefully and every animal used was the best available.
For over 15 years, on the edges of the city, a breeding program has been undertaken. Begun as the hobby of a Bulldog lover tired of the ills and ails that saw several of his earlier Kennel Club-
With the passing of the years, Graham Woods and Ken Mollett’s brother Derek, both early partners in the program, gave up or sought other goals, but Ken persisted. Using only Bull-
