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Senate amends and passes bill to help find homes for retired mounted patrol horses
Summary
Senate Bill 38, amended to increase an annual reimbursement figure from $3,000 to $5,000, passed after troopers and the mounted‑patrol sergeant described daily care requirements and adoption risks for retired draft horses.
The Delaware Senate on March 25 amended and passed Senate Bill 38, a measure intended to assist in the aftercare and placement of retired law enforcement animals, with specific focus on the state police mounted patrol’s draft horses.
Senator Lawson, floor manager for the bill, said the amendment increased a referenced annual figure from $3,000 to $5,000 to better reflect the cost of caring for large horses. "This bill is just simply just, upping our [pilotage/pilot] rates, as we do every 3 or 4 years" — floor colloquy notwithstanding, the amendment’s effect for this bill was to increase the post‑retirement support amount for retired mounted patrol animals, the sponsor said on the floor.
Sergeant Allison Meadows, who leads the Delaware State Police Mounted Unit, testified about the unit’s eight draft horses and the scale of daily care: horses average about seven years old, can work into their late teens, weigh roughly 2,000 pounds and require daily feeding and maintenance (about 70–80 pounds of hay a day). Meadows said the unit makes efforts to place retired horses in appropriate homes; without careful placement, she warned, large animals can face poor outcomes, including slaughter outside the U.S.
Senators asked operational questions about mounting, training and the unit’s capacity to find adopters. Meadows said troopers and unit staff care for the animals daily and that a vet checks retirements and placement prospects; the unit already maintains a list of community members who have expressed interest in adopting retired horses. Several senators asked to be added as cosponsors.
Senator Lawson moved the amendment to raise the specified annual amount and then called for a roll call. The amendment passed on a recorded vote and was incorporated into the bill; the final bill as amended then passed on roll call. The Senate clerk recorded the amendment vote and the final bill vote as passed (21 yes on amendment; 21 yes on final bill). The bill directs procedures to incentivize adoption and to provide oversight of post‑retirement care; it does not change criminal law or operations of police units.
