Jacco Macacco

Common card · No. 359425

Jacco Macacco was a monkey used in monkey-baiting matches at the Westminster Pit in London in the early 1820s. Though his exact species is unknown, evidence suggests he was most likely a macaque. Jacco achieved some measure of fame in the sporting community through his reputed prodigious record of victories against dogs. But popular literature, artworks, and speeches by the animal welfare campaigner Richard Martin brought him much wider attention. Jacco's most famous fight, against the equally well-known bitch Puss, seems to have marked the end of his career: he may have died as a result of injuries received during the match or of an unrelated illness sometime afterwards. His ashes are claimed to be housed at the True Crime Museum in Hastings, East Sussex.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Thomas Landseer, Public domain