Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe DETROIT, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Detroit's 112-year-old mounted police unit, once a fixture in the city, is fast dwindling, with its size now reduced to nine animals and eight humans. The horse stalls are empty at the historic Bethune Avenue Stable in Detroit, reports the Detroit Free Press. Little remains there except a stray horseshoe, two pet cats, old pictures and the lieutenant who supervises the mounted section. Advertisement At one time, the unit boasted seven dozen horses and an equal number of officers. People inside and outside the department fear the city is slowly phasing out the mounted unit that specializes in crowd control, even as Detroit prepares to host the All-Star baseball game in July and Super Bowl XL in February 2006. A spokesman for Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings insists the unit is not being eliminated. But one retired inspector who spent 31 of his 36 years in the unit wrote of it: "The unit seems to be on a respirator."
