Gryph
I spoke to our vet (the flying vet from the ABC show) about the ridgeback, he's married to a lass from Zimbabwe and spent some time over there on her folks farm. He said that the ridgeback was still used to hunt with over there mainly on cattle killing leopards. Pete said that three ridgebacks would go in on a leopard and tear it to pieces BUT only one dog would come out alive. And that one would have some bad injurys. Tough dogs I reckon.

I was looking at showing my ridgeback when he was young. I went to some shows and walked past all the pampered poochers to the ridgeback folks, who were all together, under a tarp drinking beer, with dogs staked out. Most of the dogs carried scares from pig hunts. There is a guy up your way that register's his litters with the AKC but doesn't show them, they are all hunting dogs.

Re the dogs on game, perhaps its because the clients want the traditional hunt that they've read about, ie black trackers following the spoor through the bush? A dog would be just as effective, if not more so, but its not seen as traditional.