Mad dogs in old-time Phoenix

I've lived a fairly long life, most of it in Phoenix, and have known a LOT of dogs, but I've never seen a mad dog IRL (In Real Life). Of course I'm familiar with the expression, which is what dogs with rabies were called. My understanding is that they foamed at the mouth. I just Googled "mad dog" and I got a TV series, and some alcoholic drinks. So it's a term that's still in use, but you have to look a bit to find out that it referred to a dog with rabies.

My dogs, by the way, have always gotten their rabies shots regularly. They may get upset with me, or angry about not getting enough treats, but they've never been mad dogs. And of course now I'm thinking about mad dogs in old-time Phoenix, and wondering how long ago it was common to see a mad dog on the street, the way that it's described in books, walking slowly, and foaming at the mouth, while people went looking for the Sheriff.

In my lifetime, which has spanned a little over 60 years, dogs have been more physically contained. When I was a kid, dogs just walked around loose all over Minneapolis, even in the nicest neighborhoods. And when I moved to Phoenix in the 1980s no one really gave any thought to dogs just wandering around. If there were leash laws, I never knew about them. And since I've lived in suburbia now for over thirty years, I rarely see a dog without a collar, or off of a leash, and my assumption is that they've been vaccinated for rabies. Of course I know that there are non-vaccinated dogs in, ahem, more casual-about-the-rules neighborhoods in Phoenix, but around here I don't worry much.

Mad dogs menacing people in the streets of Phoenix isn't something that we think about much nowadays. It's like people getting polio, or smallpox. Yes, I suppose that it does happen, but it's far from common. But there was a time, not too long ago, when it was very common, and people just this as one of the risks of life.

Cave canem.

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