I had another post ready to go today. But a story came into my Inbox, and I must speak up.
Mounted police units all over the US tend to be the first cutback in municipal expenses. Boston’s, the nation’s oldest, closed last year. Other smaller cities have dropped their units.
But what has me so riled up about the dispersal of San Diego’s small herd of police horses is that they’ll be sold at auction on a police surplus site.
Think about it. This is not the Keeneland Sale or Fasig-Tipton or Tattersall’s.
But a public auction in a venue usually reserved for confiscated material.
Is this a fitting retirement for officers of the law?
Horse auctions for ” left-overs”
Pretty much every Tuesday, thoroughbred exercise rider and equine advocate Alex Brown attends horse auctions. Here’s his article for the Paulick Report on the auctions. He Twitters about the horses sold. Many go to the kill buyers. He Tweets photos of the horse on the auction block and lists the selling price, usually by the pound.
His Tweets are hard to see. But attention must be paid.
When a horse is sold by the pound, he is not going off to a nice farm with a family outside of town.
(If you are one of my child readers and someone told you that a beloved pet was sent “to live with a nice family on a farm,” you were lied to, my friends. Demand photos.)
What did Boston do?
Boston made the best of a bad situation. The city re-homed its police horses. Check this article on The Horse website, although you may have to register, it’s a brief process and registration is free.
Mexican vacation no one wants?
Is public auction a fitting retirement for former San Diego police officers? After all, they could end up on a kill truck to Mexico.
From San Diego, that’s not a long ride.
Tags: Alex Brown, Boston mounted police unit, horse auctions, kill buyers, mounted police unit, San Diego mounted police unit
February 14th, 2010 at 9:29 pm
I once lived in the area and I am appalled to hear that these former officers are going to be auctioned off. I hope they reconsider and work to find these fine animals loving homes.
February 14th, 2010 at 9:34 pm
The horses sold for, pretty good money, which encourages me into thinking that they might be going to good homes. Here’s a link to the news story about it. http://www.signonsandiego.com/.....1000-city/ But, IMO, it’s still a lousy situation.
February 23rd, 2010 at 1:18 pm
instead of getting all-riled and speaking about something you know absolutely nothing about, Horse Auctions, you and people like you should shut the hell up…The 7 horses netted over $110,000US, That’s about a $15,000 average per horse. Idiot, slaughter horses in mexico are worth 20 cents per pound or about 175-200 dollars per head at the border. Geez, you are a clueless, tree-hugging, wanna-be idiot. Rehoming facilities can’t even afford to pay for the feed their horses are consuming…i have several bad checks from some of these “horse-savers” and noone will make the checks good! You want to buy a couple of these NSF checks for a few cents on the dollar..please donate right away so i can get paid for my feed..
February 23rd, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Thanks for stopping by, jo. I appreciate your passion and agree with you more than you realize.
I probably need to update this post with how glad I am that the horses sold for so much money.