OCR Text |
Show Rural Ciiens Of Pesns'lvanla' EAST DALLAS. Pa. Rabies-maddened Rabies-maddened foxes h a v attacked housewives har.ring out their laundry, laun-dry, childre.i ar.d farmers in fields in parts of eastern Pennsylvania, authorities say. Rabies has killed one womsn, made many ill, and felled hundreds of domestic animals. Mrs. Ruby Dixon, 32, East Dallas, Dal-las, died after being bitten by a I rabid fox which she choked to death to free herself from its grip. All other persons bitten have recovered. re-covered. Some of the boldest attacks took place in Chester county, near Philadelphia. Phila-delphia. Housewives were bitten as they hung laundry outdoors to dry. A farmer was attacked on his tractor trac-tor and a child was bitten in a heavily populated district. Raymond Ilagee, 8, and his cousin, cous-in, Richard Thomas, 12, were attacked at-tacked by a rabid fox as they explored ex-plored a stream near their home in Exton, Pa. Richard killed the animal with one blow with the butt of an unloaded .22-caliber rifle. In the back mountain region of Luzerne County, many housewives were carrying clubs and rifles. The state agriculture department said 18 persons were bitten by animals ani-mals suspected of having rabies in the last six months of 1951 and : "many persons" have been bitten I this year. The department said 37 cases of rabies, 20 of them in foxes, were reported during the first seven weeks of this year. In Chester and Luzerne counties, coun-ties, fox-hunting parties were organized or-ganized to beat the bush and woodlands. wood-lands. Montgomery county residents were told to trap the animals because be-cause "most of them are gray foxes which won't run in front of hound.;. They hit the first hole they reach." State officials and sportsmen's clubs placed poisoned crows throughout infested areas, explaining explain-ing that dogs and cats won't eat them while foxes consider them delicacies. Gov. Joi n S. Fine announced a campaign by the state health and agriculture departments and the game commission to control rabies, describing it as a "serious menace to the health of Pennsylvanians." The game commission said the current outbreak began in Chester county several years ago and spread to Bucks, Montgomery and Delaware counties. The disease has also flared in Susquehanna and Luzerne Lu-zerne counties and cases were reported re-ported in 13 other counties. |