SCOOP UP FOR MENTAL HEALTH

[schlomo]

Scoop up for Mental Health

As my wife and I drove to one of the finger-like coastal inlets in Maine, we noticed a well-behaved bridled horse on the side of the road. Further down, a cop signaled all traffic to stop while he shoveled piles of debris into a plastic bag. It turned out to be horse manure. When he was done, the cop got back on his horse and entered a grassy spot where he encouraged lots of children and a few adults to pet and even caress the welcoming thoroughly domesticated horse.

The cop had some insignia on the back of his leather jacket: “Horses over America {utilized by 850 police departments in New England} for mental health.” It was too crowded for me to get near enough to hear what message the cop was conveying to the onlookers, but I would guess that it was both entertaining and edifying.

Our country can use all of our institutional and improvised mental health outlets to arrest the psycho-pathological extremism of young misguided mass shooters. If some of the cop-supervised animal oriented therapy involved the interplay with horses, perhaps these teenagers at risk could at first help the cops round up the poop. Working with manure could help them become more mature.