A Chicago Police horse named "J.R." is seen in a stable used by the Chicago Police Mounted Unit on the South Side of Chicago. Most of the horses in the stable were let loose from their stalls during a break-in and "J.R." was sprayed with a fire extinguisher, causing swelling to his eyes. (Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune / September 17, 2012)
 
A fire extinguisher was used to injure two Chicago Police Department horses that were among about 30 let loose from their stalls during a break-in Sunday night at a stable in Chicago's South Shore community, police said.
A 20-year-old horse named J.R. suffered swelling to the eye after being sprayed with a fire extinguisher, and a horse named Schott was hit on the back of its right leg and flank, apparently with the same extinguisher, police said.
"The incident has upset a lot of people here," said Lt. Paul Bauer, commander of the department's mounted patrol unit. "The horses were very agitated and fearful. You can imagine the trauma they endured."
Bauer said both horses "are doing fine" after being given the day off.
"Just today they were off the street," he said, predicting they would be back on duty Tuesday.
Officers assigned to the mounted unit had returned to the stable on the grounds of the South Shore Cultural Center about 11:15 p.m. Sunday and found 27 of the stable's 30 horses out of their stalls, Bauer said. They were circling inside the stable's arena, and some were shaking, he said.
Bauer's own horse was involved, he said.
The officers searched the area and discovered that a rear window had been used to get inside, Bauer said. No arrests had been made as of Monday evening.
Officer Mike Clisham, a trainer at the mounted unit, treated both horses.
J.R.'s eyes were "flushed'' out, and he was given an eye ointment and a shot to ease the swelling, Clisham said.
"The eyes were the worst of everything,'' Clisham said.
He also took care of Schott's cuts.
"This morning they were a little nervous,'' Clisham said of the two horses.
Schott is named after police Officer Richard R. Schott, who suffered a fatal heart attack in December 1997 while struggling with a prisoner at the Deering District lockup on the South Side, according to the Officer Down Memorial Page, a website devoted to police who died in the line of duty. Of the other horses injured was the newest horse to the unit named Mikey who is named after the fallen Forensic Tech Micheal Flisk who was killed in the line of duty collecting evidence from a burglary.