The State's Rabies Crackdown
Facing an outbreak of rabies, Washington state officials grant peace officers and citizens the power to destroy unmuzzled dogs on sight.
Commissioner H. T. Graves has issued a new order regarding the spread of rabies or hydrophobia. All dog owners who violate the muzzling requirement will be subject to a fine of up to $250 or 90 days in jail. Furthermore, the legislation grants any person the right to kill any unmuzzled dog found running at large on sight without any liability. The quarantine encompasses twenty counties, including Benton, as the state attempts to safeguard the public from the fatal disease.
“Any person is authorized... to destroy, without liability therefor, any dog not muzzled as herein provided and found running at large.”
Public health mandates regarding animal control are rarely as extreme today as the state-sanctioned vigilante authority granted in 1917. This reflects a time when rabies was a visceral, untreatable terror for rural communities, long before widespread vaccination became the standard for domestic pets.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.