This day in history: A Spokane city councilman proposed a ‘trap a pooch’ plan to bait and capture stray dogs

From 1975: Spokane City Council member Jack M. O’Brien Jr. touched off a controversy when he proposed his “Trap a Pooch” plan.

O’Brien suggested that the city build 100 “cage-type lightweight traps” and loan them out for homeowners who had neighbor dogs “violating” their properties. The traps would be baited, and when the dog was caught, dogcatchers would come and take the dog to the pound.

Fellow council member Margaret J. Leonard was outraged at the plan, and called it “dog entrapment.”

“I take a dim view of putting bait in a trap,” she said.

O’Brien said Spokane had a long-running animal control problem and “we’ve tried everything for three years and nothing has worked.”

“This would be a humane and effective way of dealing with stray dogs and dogs whose owners just won’t abide by the law,” O’Brien said.

The council directed city staff to look into the feasibility of O’Brien’s plan.

From 1925: The jury failed to reach a verdict in the Bernard Maxwell manslaughter trial and was dismissed by the judge.

The jury reported that they stood nine for acquittal and three for conviction. Newman was accused of being drunk when he ran down pedestrian Joseph Kennedy on Apple Way.

The prosecutor said he would soon make a decision on pursuing a new trial. Suffice to say this would not be the end of the surprising twists and turns in the Bernard Maxwell saga.

Also on this day

(From onthisday.com)

1978: China lifts its ban on the works of Aristotle, William Shakespeare and Charles Dickens.