New York City is embroiled in a legal fight over alleged mistreatment of retired police mounted unit horses at an upstate New York ranch. While it presses a lawsuit against the caretaker, a biotech firm called Breonics, the city has begun looking to put police horses out to other pastures, reports USA Today.
Horses have been retired to the ranch in Otisville because of a historical quirk. The city opened a tuberculosis sanatorium a century ago and kept horses there for their blood, which could be used for vaccinations. The sanatorium is long gone, but the unit continues to retire police horses there. In 1983, the city sold the land but required the buyer to care for the old horses. The covenant carried over when Breonics bought the land in 2001. Troubles began last year when neighbors claimed the horses seemed malnourished.
Link: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-11-01-nyc-horses_x.htm