Toward the end of Fred Gipson’s 1956 classic, “Old Yeller,” Travis says, “It was going to kill something inside me to do it, but I knew then that I had to shoot my big yeller dog.” ...

At the end of the film Old Yeller (1957), the titular dog hero defends a young boy, Travis, from a rabid wolf. In the process, Old Yeller is bitten by the wolf; he soon comes down with rabies ...