THE NEWSPAPERS


Yes, I had read the Sunday Post and the New York Times. We had both televisions, standard and police radios blasting all at once. Things were happening fast. In the Houston area since late Friday night, the papers reported, there had been over a thousand reported cases of various animals...cats, dogs, horses, even birds and one monkey...who had suddenly become violent and attacked humans.

In almost every case, there were children involved. News reports said these "possibly rabid" animals often became violent with parents and other family members. Animal control officers and the police had been forced to kill many of the pets.

Things had gotten so extreme by Sunday morning that the mayor had added emergency teeth to the leash laws and was asking people to contain their pets until it could be determined if some sort of organism was causing the plague of violence. Reports were confusing because sidebars told of story after story where some animal had come to the rescue of a child in trouble. In several cases, neighbors claimed that they suspected the parents or relatives who had been attacked of abusing the young ones in their care. Nonetheless, hundreds of animals were shot or drugged and taken to the pound.

And children were disappearing. Parents came home and found them gone. Police would respond to a call about an animal attack to find not only the pet but a child missing. rumors began to circulate about vicious animals carrying children off into the night. The number of calls for help had far outgrown the manpower of the police force. Some people had armed themselves and taken to the streets, shooting at stray animals. Related crimes were reported. Petty theft, domestic violence...in fact a pattern of sharply increasing violence of every description was beginning to emerge by the Monday morning reports.

Saturday, children had been roaming the streets, young children, older children, brothers and sisters, often surrounded by animals. Many policemen were injured and many pets killed as officers tried to capture the children. Still, hundreds were taken into custody. Child Protective Services and County Welfare were madhouses filled with screaming parents and brooding children who refused to identify themselves.

Then Sunday, the kids and animals began to vanish from the streets. Police would report a sighting but by the time they got there, the child would seem to have disappeared. Often the pets would divert or delay authorities, giving a child time to escape. Fewer animals were shot or wounded. Either the police were getting tired of the butchery or the dogs and cats were getting better at dodging.



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