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Mannheim police cavalry squadron in action (symbolic image)
Photo: Michael Deines / dpa
The Mannheim District Court has sentenced two police officers from the Mannheim Reiterstaffel to high fines for violating the Animal Welfare Act. The officers were accused of having beaten service horses to a considerable extent in several cases, including with a riding crop, torturing them with a sack full of canned goods and putting pepper paste on the feeding trough.
According to the public prosecutor's office, the police officers condoned the animals' pain and violated the Animal Protection Act. The chamber classified the offenses as rudeness. According to the verdict, one of the two officers must pay a fine of 14,000 euros. The 41-year-old was also banned from dealing with animals for two years. The second police officer, a 57-year-old man, was sentenced to a fine of 9,200 euros. The crimes occurred between 2019 and 2021.
The defendants rejected the allegations at the start of the trial. The older defendant justified three blows with a switch on the horse's buttocks, for example, by saying that he wanted to prevent the animal from standing on its hind legs. The younger official explained that rattle bags were a “normal work tool” used to accustom horses to stimuli and noise levels.
aeh/dpa