(J. Scott Wynn)
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They’re tired of getting dumped on.
Residents in the club-centric hub of the Lower East Side are raising a stink over the manure minefield they’re forced to navigate after NYPD horses do their duty to disperse rowdy bar-hoppers every weekend.
“They leave a big buffet of s- – -,” groused James Parrales, 33, a bouncer at Mehanata-The Bulgarian Bar at 113 Ludlow St.
“[The cops] are doing their job, trying to help the neighborhood . . . You can’t have both.”
The NYPD Mounted Unit was assigned to the neighborhood in January to answer complaints about bar- and clubgoers, a source said.
The unit also patrols Times Square, where the independent Times Square Alliance cleans up. And when assigned to a parade, the unit brings a bucket for the poop.
But downtown, the manure just piles up.
The Post observed the poop pile up over the weekend as mounted cops stationed themselves across from The Bulgarian Bar for about three hours, with occasional breaks to clip-clop around Ludlow, Essex and Norfolk streets near Rivington.
A police source maintained that since the horses eat only hay and grain, their fecal fallout is “biodegradable.”
But neighbors pooh-poohed that logic.
“It’s the same as dog poop — it’s smelly,” said Fabio Jimenez, 36, a longtime resident.
“I asked the cops, and they said it was biodegradable. It’s unfair that people have to pick up after their dogs, but the cops don’t have to pick it up!”
Suggesting that sanitation workers should be on scoop patrol, Jimenez said: “Where are they? I’ve been in the neighborhood for 20 years, and I’ve never seen sanitation.”
Others say the rules that require residents to scoop up after their pets should apply to the NYPD and their steeds.
“If I walk my dog, I have to clean up the poop,” said grocery-store worker Karim Islam, 28. “The same should go for the police. They should be responsible for their poop.”
John Cafaro, a clubgoer from New Jersey, noted: “You can have a poodle and get a $250 fine. Cops will fine a regular citizen who has a dog that produces a fraction of the amount of feces.”
But at least one bridge-and-tunnel traveler said he wouldn’t mind seeing more of the big steeds.
“Mounted police are very intimidating, so they bring crime down,” said Anthony Iarossi, 33, of Jersey City.
“The shame is that we only see mounted policemen on random holidays, like St. Patrick’s Day and Flag Day. Honestly, they are intimidating! Wars were won based on cavalry.”
And, he added, the debris they leave behind is part of the charm.
“[Poop] bags [would] completely negate the humor of horses spreading their feces throughout the city,” he said.
The Department of Sanitation said it is not responsible for the clean-up of the horse manure, a spokeswoman told the Post.
The NYPD didn’t immediately responded to e-mailed requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Jeremy Olshan and Cathy Burke