As if there wasn't enough horseshit on Wall Street...

November 16, 2011 8:59 AM

What is the average number of police horses that are patrolling Occupy Wall Street at any given hour?

I want to know how much actual, literal horseshit is produced by the mounted police presence (according to the Penn State agricultural departmetn's website, the average horse produces 50 lbs of horseshit per day), and compare it with the one confirmed instance of a person defecating in Zucotti Park. Then make a graphic comparing the piles of shit that each group has produced.

posted by Jon_Evil to Law & Government (8 answers total)

This NYT article says there are about 60 horses in the entire NYPD mounted division.

I'm not sure how many mounted police were deployed during OWS. On the other hand, lower Manhattan would be considered a relatively high priority area for NYPD, so there will be some horses around Zucotti Park during regular times. You will want fo find the number of extra horses because of OWS.

The amount of poo will be dwarfed by what can be found around lower Central Park on a daily basis.
posted by chengjih at 9:21 AM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also, horse poo is 100% vegetative material, good for the environment, breaks down quickly, and really doesn't even smell that bad. You can't say the same about people poo.
posted by COD at 9:56 AM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

Right, I think we have to recognize that there's a substantial difference between a horse pooping in the street (and don't they have things to catch that?) vs. a protester taking a dump on the sidewalk. Horses are expected to poop in the street. They don't know better and can't help it. People, not so much.
posted by Fister Roboto at 10:03 AM on November 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

Horses are vegetarian* hind gut fermenters. Their poop is a completely different animal than person or dog poop. Or even cow poop (ruminants). It's a lot of undigested grasses basically, with a much lower bacterial content than most. They're pretty inefficient animals and produce high bulk but low octave output as a result.

* I have seen ponies eat cheeseburgers.
posted by fshgrl at 10:34 AM on November 16, 2011 [1 favorite]

You're also assuming the horses will poop on the job. Many of them prefer to wait until they are back in a clean stall, or perhaps will poop on the wash rack or in the barn aisle so that you have to pick it up.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 12:21 PM on November 16, 2011

I live on Wall Street and I often see 4. Sometimes they randomly disappear-- there's no predicting when they'll be there. The first day I saw them, the night of the big march last month, there were probably about 10, from what I could tell. And yes, the whole street smells like a barn these days.
posted by devymetal at 2:10 PM on November 16, 2011

And I'm talking about horses on Wall Street proper on an average day-- they are spaced out evenly near the Exchange in the middle of barricaded areas, as though they were in a paddock. I have rarely ever seen them near the park (which is not on Wall street), although I imagine they go there also.
posted by devymetal at 2:14 PM on November 16, 2011

Then make a graphic comparing the piles of shit that each group has produced.

In general, a message highlighting something bad about your side, regardless of the comparison involved, will only serve to reinforce that bad thing in the reader or viewer's mind. See: crisis management. Imagine if someone ate at McDonald's, and died, and their response was to highlight the number of deaths at Burger King. Or watch the Sandusky/Costas interview. So, don't do this.
posted by dhartung at 5:32 PM on November 16, 2011