Amami Dog

		Amami Dog
		He is not recognized by the F.C.I.


Origin			Japan
Translation			Francis Vandersteen
En français, cette race se dit			Chien d'Amami
Diese Norm ist in deutscher Sprache sichtbar			Amami-Hund
En español, esta raza se dice			Perro de Amami
In het Nederlands, wordt dit ras gezegd			Amami-hond

Boar hunting is a common practice on the Amami Islands (Oshima and Tokunoshima), and native dogs were used for this purpose. Bones of small dogs have been discovered in shell middens dating back to the Jōmon period on Tokunoshima, and it is believed that the Amami dog descends from dogs that existed in the Stone Age. On Amami Oshima, it is said that dogs used for boar hunting are necessarily native dogs. At some point, Western dogs were introduced and hybrids were created, but these dogs, of Western blood, lacked vigor; therefore, they were crossed only with native dogs. Most of the red blood cells carrying the hemoglobin A gene were type B, and type A, introduced from the Korean Peninsula, was virtually absent. On Tokunoshima, native dogs were primarily used for boar hunting. However, hunting had to be suspended due to the consequences of World War II, and breeding dogs became difficult. This led to dogs becoming stray or hybrids, and because of the cost of hunting stray dogs and dog taxes, purebred dogs were either killed or turned into strays.