AUGUSTA – A state lawmaker from Portland is pushing for what could be dubbed “equine equity.”

Maine law now makes it illegal to kill or mistreat a police dog like Spike, a German shepherd that works for the Portland Police Department. But there are no such laws to protect Harry and Barney, the department’s horses.

Rep. Benjamin Dudley, D-Portland, has filed a bill for the next legislative session that would impose harsh penalties on anyone who harms a police horse.

Dudley said Sgt. Kevin Cady, the officer in charge of Portland’s mounted unit, has told him about how police horses have been frightened and assaulted over the years, often in an attempt to toss and injure the officer.

“I’ve had people come up and yank on the tail to try to throw me off,” Cady said. Other people have set off firecrackers under a horse or used a cigarette lighter to try to set the horse’s mane on fire. Once a drunken driver drove into a police horse in the city’s Old Port area.

Cady said such incidents occur two or three times a year. The department’s horses normally are on duty only from May through October.

Culprits can be charged with cruelty to animals or damaging city property, but there is nothing on the books that specifically addresses police horses, Cady said.

Dudley’s bill would add horses to an existing law that makes it a crime to mistreat a police dog. A person convicted of such an offense faces up to 364 days in jail and $2,000 in fines.

Dudley wants to extend the penalty for dog killers – one to five years in prison and up to $5,000 in fines – to anyone who kills a police horse.

“It’s not a runaway problem,” but a real one the Legislature can tackle with a simple change, Dudley said.