Cruelty to a Colorado police horse could soon be added to a law already protecting police canines and service animals under legislation making its way through the Capitol.
The House chambers echoed with equine noises as state lawmakers voted unanimously for House Bill 1041, which now heads to the Senate.
The legislation’s prime sponsor, Rep. Marc Catlin, a Republican from Montrose, said there wasn’t a specific case of cruelty toward a police horse behind his legislation. He just wanted police horses to be specially protected under the law that already aims to keep police dogs safe.
Catlin drafted the bill after talking to the Montezuma County sheriff over the summer about his office’s law enforcement horse program. Catlin says there are roughly 100 police horses in Colorado.
“I would rather see (an officer) on a horse than an armored carrier coming down the street,” he quipped, saying maybe his bill would help facilitate that.
Under the bill, which would be on top of the cruelty laws already on the books protecting all animals, law enforcement or otherwise, anyone who commits animal cruelty specifically against a police horse would commit a Class 1 misdemeanor.
Situations involving death, torture or mutilation of a police horse, and subsequent offenses, would be a felony.