The Town Goes to the Dogs
A state-mandated rabies quarantine forces Kennewick residents to muzzle their dogs or face the consequences.
These are perilous times, not alone in human life, but in the animal kingdom. Because the coyotes have gone mad and no longer observe the established rules of decent animal behavior, and because dogs have shown like tendencies, they are to be deprived of their right of free speech. They are either to be muzzled or interned at the end of a rope in the backyard for the period of the quarantine which now exists in the counties of Yakima, Benton and Klickitat. Mayor Sherk has announced that beginning next Monday the quarantine is to be rigidly enforced so far as the city of Kennewick is concerned. No dog will be allowed at large in the city limits unless he wears a muzzle—and a wire one at that. Leather ones will not do. Under the law it is a misdemeanor to permit an unmuzzled dog to run at large and the person so doing is liable to fine or imprisonment or both. Every one is authorized to kill an unmuzzled dog wherever found at large and no penalty is attached.
“They are either to be muzzled or interned at the end of a rope in the backyard.”
Public health mandates in the early 20th century were often enforced with a brusque, immediate threat of violence against property or pets. While modern animal control focuses on vaccination and licensing, the wartime rhetoric here captures the intense, almost martial, atmosphere of 1917 Kennewick.
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