FEELING stressed? How about a bit of soft-tissue treatment? Not you. The horse. Police Review (July 6) reports on two British police officers who have been selected as instructors in soft-tissue treatment for horses. Police horses are prone to such problems because they spend so much time standing still and doing crowd control on hard work surfaces.
Detective Sergeant Liz Andrews, from Staffordshire Police, and PC Carly Jarrett, from the Met, took part in the Equine Touch course in Texas last month. The treatment, says Police Review, is a “nondiagnostic, noninvasive energy and muscle-release discipline that works to holistically address the horse’s health problems”. Or as Detective Sergeant Andrews puts it: “It involves putting your hands on the horse’s body.” Less touchy-feely is the idea Allien-Dewi David, an inmate at HMP Swansea, suggests to Inside Time (July): voluntary euthanasia for lifers. This would sidestep the argument that innocent people could be killed if the death penalty were reintroduced, David explains. He heard the idea on a BBC radio programme about Italian prisoners, but adds the proviso that “there would need to be extensive psychiatric tests for anyone considering this option”.