This day in history: Spokane’s debate over selling stray dogs for medical research intensified

From 1975: The hot debate over whether the city should sell stray dogs to Washington State University for research was getting even hotter.

One man said it would be “the first step to communism.”

“They’ll sell your pets and the next thing you know, they’ll be selling you down the river, too,” he said.

Other opponents of the city’s proposal denied that they were “anti-vivisectionists,” or even opposed to veterinary research. They said they just didn’t think “the city should be in the dog merchandising business.”

The Spokane City Council had been besieged for months by complaints about the proposed sale of impounded dogs. As a result, they had agreed to put the proposition to a vote on the next ballot.

From 1925: Police raided the Inland Club and arrested “19 colored men and one white man,” in the words of the Spokane Chronicle, on gambling and drinking charges.

The Spokane police chief said that the Inland Club, at Trent Avenue and Market Street, “has been a constant nuisance in the city and should no longer be tolerated.”

When eight officers raided the place at 2 a.m., they “surprised the 20 men gathered around the gambling tables.” They also found that drinks were being dispensed and consumed.

The Chronicle reported that this wasn’t the first time the club had made the news. Its former owner had been “shot to death there about a year ago during an alleged all-night party.”