The History of the Werewolf

Fear of rabies was probably responsible for adding a whole lot of color and depth to two classic figures in literary horror. It's likely that an actual increase in rabies cases was responsible for some of the fear, but with it came some tragic consequences. Mass extermination of dogs following rabies outbreaks. Like tax in Britain and France that restricted the ownership of dogs to the wealthy as if only dogs from poor people could transmit rabies.