Horse & Animal Rescue Team
The HART Team was established after the City of Riverside Police Department Mounted Patrol Unit recognized the need for a specialized team in the event a horse or large animal was in-need of a technical rescue. This includes overturned horse trailers, horses trapped in quicksand, swimming pools, trenches, wells, septic tanks, hillsides or steep terrain in which the animal is unable to free itself.
The police department partnered with the City of Riverside Fire Department Technical Rescue Team to form HART in 2015.
The HART Team is stationed out of the fire departments technical rescue station (Station 3) and has since responded to numerous horse rescues involving technical rope rescue, and airlifting horses by helicopter. The team conducts annual training for technical rescue equipment, and helicopter operations.
The team consists of Police Department Mounted Patrol Officers, Technical Rescue Trained Firefighters, Riverside County Animal Control officers, Riverside County Sheriffs Aviation Unit, and two on call Veterinarians.