This day in history: 2 ranchers were accused of killing wolf from airplane. Stray house cat sent Spokane woman to Sacred Heart

From 1976: A capacity crowd filled a federal courtroom in Spokane for the trial of two ranchers accused of shooting a wolf from an airplane.

“Environmentalists were jammed alongside of ranchers on the spectator benches,” said The Spokesman-Review.

Washington State Game Department officials said they believed the wolf was the first found in the state since 1951, and the first shot since 1924. But a University of British Columbia professor said he believed the animal shot was part dog.

The two ranchers – one from Mansfield, Wash., and the other from Chelan – were accused of shooting the wolf from an airplane and then taking the carcass to a taxidermist in Penticton, British Columbia. A witness said the ranchers posed for pictures at the Mansfield airstrip with the dead wolf.

The trial continued.

From 1926: Mrs. R.G. Buchanan was in Sacred Heart Hospital after being attacked by a “savage cat.”

This was apparently not a cougar or a bobcat, but simply a domestic cat – although not exactly a cuddly one,

She and her 12-year-old daughter said they had just stepped on their front porch after an evening at the theater.

“Mrs. Buchanan noticed the large feline on the porch and attempted to scare it away,” said the Chronicle. “However, the cat sprang at her face, sinking his claws deep in her coat sleeves and biting viciously at her hands. Before the daughter could pull the cat from her mother, the animal had chewed the muscles and tenons of both hands.”