100 Raleigh Dogs Shot in Mad Dog Scare, July 28, 1925

State Capital Mad Dog Scare. . . Execution of a Hundred Dogs the Result; Pou Loses His Head When Reporter Seeks Interview

Raleigh, July 27—A mad dog scare and a fight between a News and Observer reporter and the Prison Superintendent were the two matters which absorbed chief interest at the Capital City during the past week. Governor McLean was busy with the installation of the new policies of government which he is advocating but stopped long enough to run down to Lumberton the last part of the week to inspect his crops and then to the Sand Hill peach show. He also sent out a call for a special term of court to try the case against the four Raleigh Ice Companies alleging restraint of trade.

The mad dog scare, because of the intimate personal relation it might at any time assume, absorbed chief interest and there probably was some panic not justified by facts. A child died last Monday of rabies and the same day a German police dog went mad and bit three or four persons and several dogs. This was the signal for a general open season on dogs and about 100 passed out by the execution method during the week. A number of others were treated for the disease and several persons, bitten or who had contact with dogs which died or went mad, were inoculated against the disease. Dr. C.A. Shore of the State Laboratory reassured the populace with a statement that the treatment was an almost sure preventive against rabies. The scare had the good effect of making people more careful concerning their dogs, and it is probable Raleigh will back stringent legislation concerning dogs at the next legislature.

George Ross Pou, Superintendent of State Prison, lost his head Tuesday afternoon and when Jonathan Daniels, reporter for the News and Observer, asked for an interview he was met with a blow to the face and a statement to the effect that the State Prison was not giving any news to the News and Observer as that paper “had told nothing but damned lies” about the Pou administration. The two then mixed it up a little. Each claims the other got the worst of it, but the fact is neither was badly damaged. Pou lost his head and acted unwisely and unbecoming a State Official, but at the same time The News and Observer has been unrelenting in its crusade against Pou and his printed things concerning him which would have made many a man of more balance than Pou lose his head. . . . .

From the front page of The Smithfield Herald, Tuesday, July 28, 1925

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn92073982/1925-07-28/ed-1/seq-1/