Alan Bisanar Bitten By Setter, Dogs Killed Because Rabies Suspected, April 22, 1919

From the Hickory Daily Record, April 22, 1919

Alan Bisanar Is Bitten By a Setter

A telegram this afternoon from Mr. Geo. M. Bisanar at Raleigh stated that Dr. C.A. Shore, director of the state laboratory of hygiene, considered Alan Bisanar safe, and that the lad would return home with his parents tonight. This is good news for relatives as well as the community.

Mr. and Mrs. Geo. E. Bisanar had left last evening for Raleigh where they took their six-year-old son, Alan, who was bitten on the arm last Wednesday afternoon by a setter dog which afterwards proved to be infected with rabies. Chief of Police Lentz also left for Raleigh on the same train with the head of a puppy for analysis.

Last Wednesday afternoon the Bisanar lad was playing in front of his home on Fifteenth street when the dog, a female setter belonging to Mr. A.A. Shuford Jr., bit him on the arm. The dog first bit the lad on the leg, and the little fellow though it was another boy pinching him. A second later, however, the setter grabbed his arm. Next day, Mr. Shuford advised Chief Lentz that he had a dog at home that was acting strangely and suggested that it be killed. Mr. Lentz then told Mr. Shuford of the biting incident and the Bisanar children identified the dog as the one which had attacked Alan. The head was sent to the state laboratory of hygiene and analysis disclosed infection.

The setter was rather ill, but as she was the mother of seven pups, the owner thought nothing of it. She stayed close at home before the incident on Fifteenth street and was an unusually gentle animal. During Wednesday she killed six of her pups and the seventh was removed by the Shuford boys. When the mother was found to be mad, the pup was also killed and its head taken by Chief Lentz to the state laboratory of hygiene. The probabilities of infection form the pup, if it had scratched one of the Shuford children, were remote, but to be on the safe side every precaution is being taken.

Mr. Shuford said his setter dog seemed perfectly normal the night before he had her killed. She ate and drank and wagged her tail naturally and he was hopeful that the Bisanar lad’s bite would not be serious. Mr. Bisanar expects to return home tonight, but Mrs. Bisanar will remain with her boy during the treatment of three weeks. A dog belonging to the children of Mr. Geo. F. Ivey was killed as a precaution.

Many Hickory people believe that a systematic poisoning campaign is in progress here. Doses of strychnine have been found in cheese and steak in the right proportion to kill and several dogs, mostly possum hunters, have been found dead.

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Rex Dies for Others

There is great sorrow in the family of Mr. J.F. Ivey and among the children of the neighborhood on account of Rex, the friend of all children. He was a dog of unusual intelligence and could be frequently seen on the streets always surrounded by a crowd of children. He was supposedly bitten by a mad dog and suffered the usual penalty. He died that others might live and has gone where good dogs go.