He threw it off the cliff because it was not performing well in dog fights. It was an English bull terrier ( the type of dog that Bill Sykes had ) called Chester. He lived next door to my mother and my kids loved the dog.The "man" who according to legend infamously threw his pit bull off the cliffs at Marsden Grotto to test its suitability to be his accomplice. His reasoning was that if it survived, then it was sufficiently hard to live. If it didn't survive, then it obviously didn't qualify.