Seattle police said Tuesday that a few of their police horses were hit with bags of paint during clashes with demonstrators at Monday’s Occupy protest at the Port of Seattle.
Police Sgt. Grant Ballingham, a member of the department’s mounted patrol, said, “We were pelted by a number of objects. It was dark. I couldn’t tell what was really hitting me. I couldn’t tell if they were bags of paint … we didn’t really notice the paint on the horses until the action subsided.”
Mounted officers and three horses were all hit by debris and bags.
Initially the officers thought that at least one white horse was bleeding and had been scraped or cut, but discovered that it was red paint. Officers were able to remove the paint from the horses and determine that the horses were not injured.