Dog-Sense: For All Dog Owners

Handcuffed Police And Degraded Dogs

Police officers are handicapped today with two of their best assets in crime prevention deemed politically incorrect in 2021. Are sidearms next?

October 12, 2021 | TheDogPress.com

Barbara "BJ" Andrews, SAAB Member

Police dogs and horses are right up there with an officer’s firearm as a visual, tangible crime deterrent. “Police presence” in and of itself is powerful prevention against criminal actions but an officer on horseback is psychologically “elevated” and physically equipped to prevent crime.

So why have mounted officers been degraded as “too expensive” to train and maintain? The inarguable fact is that you are statistically less safe with so many police officers retiring. And with fewer police dogs and mounted police officers, the psychological hold-back against committing a crime is dangerously diminished.

A mounted police officer can be on the scene in a fraction of the time it takes a patrol car to navigate through packed city streets. A police dog can stop a killer fleeing through busy sidewalks whereas a gun would be useless. Professional robbers know that… They can rob a jewelry store and effect a clean get-away, protected by the public!

How long will it be before preventing and stopping crime is as impossible as controlling rioters who are stealing, destroying property, and causing mayhem?

A reasonable person would think that police dogs and horses would be the most cost-effective crime control assets especially with saber-like budget cuts. A police dog can weave through crowed sidewalks much easier than can a robber. A mounted officer is elevated enough to keep an assailant or thief in sight and obviously a horse can outrun a human.

Has the use of horses and police dogs been discontinued due to the same political correctness that limits free speech and self-defense while allowing mobs to rule? When criminals control the streets, humanity is at risk.

Cost-wise, it is significantly less expensive to elevate an officer to a psychological position of greater power and observational ability by putting him astride a horse. Horses work cheap and last well over 20 years compared to police vehicles which are replaced every 3 years.

Officers receive generous salaries, paid vacations, medical insurance, workman’s comp and generous retirement benefits (click map above for salaries). There are no “benefits” for police horses. When too old to work most horses become zoo or pet food… Thankfully, police dogs are usually retired to the officer’s family or friends.

In London, the Metropolitan Police Mounted Branch which has been in service since 1760, has been drastically reduced. By 2016 there were only 110 horses in service at an average cost of £5,558 per horse per year. But wait, compare that to an average of £31,749 pounds per year per human officer – plus pension and other benefits not accorded to canine officers or police horses.

Animal breeders understand and value genetics. Knowing the gene package makes a horse or dog predictable as to size, dependability and job suitability.

It should not be “politically incorrect” to note that human genetics are also linked with behavioral traits and talents. Irish are brave, English can be stogy whereas Italians are outgoing. Germans are inventive, Native Americans are naturalists, the French are artistic and Americans are all of that as most of our ancestors came from Europe. Like dog breeds, horses are of certain “types” and temperament as are people who are attracted to animals.

Does a mounted police officer respect, even love his horse. We’d bet the answer is a resounding yes. The officer knows being mounted has double the psychological presence, three times the speed and mobility, and a million times the appeal and approachability. Like a canine officer, the mounted police officer is the friend and idol of every child as compared to being “the boogy man” to kids whose parents have threatened them with “calling the cops.”

Horses are still employed in a few American cities and by mounted Border Control officers. Thanks to them, there may still be a United States for our children.

TheDogPress.com EST 2002 © Oct 2021 https://www.thedogpress.com/DogSense/handcuffed-police-degraded-dogs-b21A102.asp

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