Fear struck the hearts of Franklin and Pine residents in September 1895 when a rabid dog (or as they would have said, a mad dog) appeared near Valincia Station (their spelling).
More mad dogs appeared in Pine and Franklin and terrorized the residents and livestock in those communities. Many cows and sheep were infected and died that fall and more dogs were falling victim to madness.
The first mad dog attacked some cows in a field and then ran into the woods and disappeared. The cows began acting uncharacteristically and had to be put down by their owners. A 3-year-old colt was bit and began attacking everything that came near it. The poor horse was killed by its owner.
Today, rabies is considered under control in the United States. From 2009 – 2018 there were only 25 cases of human rabies in the US. This control is due to the fact that we have laws in place to mandate rabies shots for our domesticated pets such as dogs and cats. Dogs are the biggest spreader of rabies in the world.
A vaccine does exist but is not part of the regular vaccine schedule in the US since we have so few cases. The vaccine was invented in 1885 by Louis Pasteur who administered the first vaccine to a young boy who had been bitten by a rabid animal. The treatment was successful.
The colt mentioned above belonged to William Bower, a Wexford farmer. His only daughter, Anne, after investigating a noise near the chicken coop was attacked by a mad dog and was bitten and scratched violently. Her brother Theodore shot the dog.
Anne was taken to Dr. Means, a local Wexford doctor where her wounds were cauterized but they did not heal. She was taken to Allegheny Hospital. The attending physician wasn’t concerned with her surface wounds but advised her to travel immediately to New York to the Pasteur Institute to receive the rabies vaccine. She declined.
“At the end of nine weeks she was seized with convulsions, having all the symptoms of hydrophobia, and died.”
Anne Bower was 23.
The mad dogs were reported in Duff City, Butler, Thorn Hill, and Perrysville. A young woman in Perrysville was viciously attacked but suffered no torn flesh due to her corset.
A man at Price’s Mill was bit and went to New York. A woman was bitten at the same time but refused to go and instead would apply home remedies. No follow-up could be found for her.
The mad dog scare was so concerning to the residents of Pine that they contemplated executing all dogs. No follow-up could be found if they decided to do this or not. Given how prevalent mad dog scare articles are in the newspaper archives I’d venture to bet they didn’t.
If you haven’t yet, and you want to continuing living in a world where we don’t worry about rabies, get your pet their vaccine today.
In Pennsylvania, in 2020, there were 347 reported cases of rabies, 17 in Allegheny County (8 bats, 6 raccoons, 4 cats). Again, these cases were all animal cases, no human. Click here to see the PA report.
Click here to be directed to the Wikipedia page about rabies or the historic name, hydrophobia.
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