The Great Finley Coyote Hunt
When a rabid animal terrorized a local farmyard, the community mobilized with every firearm in their possession to track it down.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
At 5:30 o'clock while A. Burns was busy pruning in his orchard, a coyote appeared and attacked his dogs, finally making off across the ditch with Henry Kramer hot on his trail. Kramer failed to catch him, but it is presumed this same coyote appeared in Bill Tewalt’s yard and attacked two dogs at the kitchen door. Mrs. Tewalt, seeing the attack, rushed to the phone and summoned neighbors to the Goss cow pasture. Like the Minute Men of old, the farmers appeared as if by magic, armed with .22s, .32s, .38s, 45-70s, shotguns, field guns, siege guns, and pistols of every description. The magic army closed in, only to find the coyote had escaped. They searched until dark, with no result other than Glen Hitchcock shooting a rabbit and Cam Bowles bagging a cat. The incident serves as a grim reminder of the hydrophobia epidemic; within thirty minutes, the animal was seen to bite four dogs, and the danger to human life and livestock is immense. Many dog owners continue to ignore muzzling orders, willfully exposing their neighbors to risk.
“Like the Minute men of old, the farmers appeared as if by magic armed with 22s, 32s, 38s, 45-70s shot guns, field guns, siege guns and pistols.”
Public health emergencies, whether rabies in 1917 or modern disease outbreaks, often highlight the tension between individual liberty and collective safety. The frustration expressed by the writer toward unmuzzled dogs on school grounds mirrors contemporary debates over civic responsibility and public safety regulations in rapidly growing rural-suburban zones.
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