Rescue Team Decision Angers Mounted Unit

Soon after successfully performing their first horse rescue, members of the mounted unit of the Agoura Hills Disaster Response Team are angry at what they said was a surprising and abrupt end to their work.

The DRT’s Mounted Search and Rescue Team in October helped evacuate horses affected by the Calabasas/Malibu fires, and members said they do not understand why DRT officials dissolved their team.

“If somebody had gotten hurt, or if there had been a problem, I’d understand,” said Alex Robertson, a founding member of the mounted unit.

City and DRT officials said the decision came about because of that fire, which was not within the city limits.

City Manager Dave Adams said that after he heard the distance the group went to rescue horses, and the danger they were in, he indicated that he would not send them outside the city limits again.

“We had a debriefing and, frankly, I was scared to death to hear some of the situations they were in,” he said. “This went way beyond what I had envisioned.”

Robertson, however, said he recalls Adams saying the opposite, a contention Adams denied.

DRT Director Greg Bennett said the group voted last month to disband the mounted unit to free it to make a deal with the county, which had expressed interest in forming a team for its Department of Animal Control.

“With the city affiliation, it [the mounted unit] was limited to the city limits,” he said. “But the team wanted to go everywhere in the county that the animal shelter wanted to send them.”

Robertson said that the mounted unit is involved in discussions with county officials, but no agreement has been reached.