Mounted Patrol lifts spirits with visit to Agrace patients

Sunday, September 4, 2016

FITCHBURG (WKOW) — Patients at a hospice facility in the Madison area are getting some unique care.

Members of the Madison Police Department’s Mounted Patrol Unit took some time off work Wednesday afternoon to visit patients and their families at Agrace Hospicecare in Fitchburg.

The interaction can be uplifting for people who are coping with the stresses of end of life care.

“There’s something really healing about animals in general. Therapy animals exist for a reason,” says Officer Sarah McLaughlin, with the Mounted Patrol. “The horses are very good at reading energy and people that are excited, yet quiet and calm, really allow the horse to shine. The horse has a healing power about themselves and I think that people can feel that when the horses come to visit them and it just brightens their day.”

“I think it’s wonderful,” says Beverly McCartney, whose husband is staying at Agrace right now. “I can’t say anything .. only praise for everything they do.”

Mounted patrol officers make regular appearances in the area, in between patrolling the downtown area and working large events in the city.