One of Bondi’s most recognisable residents is waging a campaign to rid the beach of mounted police who he says treat the national icon as a ‘horse toilet’.
Speedo-wearing Dimitri Moskovich, who works out every day at Sydney’s most famous beach, is so upset about horse droppings on his beloved Bondi he confronted Prime Minister Malclom Turnbull last week.
‘Stop police horses coming here,’ Mr Moskovich told Mr Turnbull. ‘We don’t need horses here. It’s an abuse to our beach.’
Horse droppings left behind by mounted police patrols on the promenade at Bondi Beach
Bondi regular Dimitri Moskovich, 52, spends up to six hours a day at the beach exercising
A NSW Police Mounted Unit patrol walks along the iconic sands of Sydney’s Bondi Beach
Dimitri Moskovich is fed up with police horse manure fouling his beloved Bondi promenade
Taken aback, Mr Turnbull replied: ‘The horses presumably swim between the flags.’
But Mr Moskovich was not amused. ‘Doesn’t matter,’ he said. ‘They s**t on the sand, they s**t on the promenade.’
‘You love the beach and it’s a disrespect to all of us.’
Mr Turnbull then said: ‘You know, that issue has never been raised with me before.’
But Mr Moskovich told Daily Mail Australia he had been trying for years to get police horses banned from Bondi Beach.
‘There is no reason for Bondi Beach, which is a national icon, to become a horse toilet,’ he said.
Initially Mr Moskovich spoke to individual mounted officers, then took his complaints to Waverley Council and last week went to the prime minister.
Mounted police patrol Bondi Beach which some locals say is being fouled by horse droppings
Dimitri Moskovich (in purple towel) points at police horse droppings left on Bondi Beach
‘I kept telling them there is no need for horses,’ the 52-year-old said. ‘I was telling them the horses should have bags under their bums.’
‘Bondi Beach is a national icon and a national icon is being s**t on. It’s a disgrace to the whole nation.’
‘Every time it’s like an assault. It’s a violation. I feel like somebody spits in my face.
‘I’m an animal lover. When I see a dog s***ts anywhere and the owner does not pick up I say “guys, please pick up”. At the same time you can’t say anything to the police.’
Mr Moskovich, a property investor who can be found exercising at Bondi up to six hours a day, said he often had to warn tourists about the horse-made hazard on the promenade.
‘It doesn’t even occur to them that they can walk along Bondi promenade and they can walk in a huge heap of horse s***,’ he said. ‘It’s just wrong.’
‘I’ve seen it on the sand as well but most of the time it’s on the promenade.’
Police say that as horses are plant-eaters their droppings (pictured here at Bondi Beach) are not particularly offensive
New South Wales mounted police horses walk through water at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbul (left) is confronted by Dimitri Moskovich (in sunglasses)
Eventually, council officers remove the manure. ‘It could be five hours later, it could be the next day,’ Mr Moskovich said.
The Russian-born fitness fanatic, who has been pictured in polling booths on election days wearing only his Speedos as he votes, considers Bondi Beach his office.
‘If somebody is using your backyard or your balcony as a toilet you would get upset,’ he said. ‘It’s really upsetting.’
Mr Moskovich has used his Facebook page to call for police horses to be banned from the beach.
Social media reaction has mostly been supportive of Mr Moskovich’s campaign.
‘Coppers should collect their horses dung and grow roses with it,’ one user wrote.
‘Again with the walking s*** machines!’ another wrote. ‘How many riots have they stopped today…?’
NSW mounted police patrol Bondi Beach; some locals complain about the horses’ droppings
Mounted police horse droppings left on the promenade at Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach
A pair of mounted police horses and officers with life guards on the sands of Bondi Beach
A third protested: ‘Dimi, I have made complaints to the council and to the police numerous times.
‘They aren’t going to do anything about it… But they will give you a fine for a dog s*** one millionth of the size.’
And then there was this comment referring to the video of Mr Moskovich with Mr Turnbull: ‘I don’t recognize the guy in blue T-shirt. Who is Dima talking to?’
A New South Wales Police Force spokesman said the mounted patrols at Bondi were a useful crime-fighting tool which would continue.
‘Mounted police patrol Bondi as part of high-visibility policing and community interaction duties,’ the spokesman said.
‘They venture down on the sand and promenade as that is where they are most visible by the majority of people and the most interaction takes place.
‘This also provides a vantage point, by utilising the height advantage from a horse, to identify any criminal activity.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull listens as Dimitri Moskovich complains about police horses
Dimitri Moskovich in his Speedos is a regular sight on Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach
Two mounted police officers and their horses standing in water at Sydney’s Bondi Beach
‘In relation to the manure, the mounted unit patrols of Bondi are for a few hours at most once a week and they receive a great deal of community support whilst present.’
Mr Moskovich said he got a phone call from a senior mounted unit officer in the days after he confronted the prime minister.
He said he was told bags which are fitted under police horses’ tails in some countries were not suitable and that because horses were herbivores their droppings were not particularly offensive.
‘If I’m a vegetarian would you be OK if I s**t in the middle of your living room?’ Mr Moskovich asked.
‘We need police on the beach. Bondi Beach must be policed. But we do not need mounted police on the beach.’
Mr Moskovich made headlines four years ago in a rope climbing accident at the beach when he fell seven metres while distracted by the sight of a ‘very nice topless girl’. He suffered 20 fractures to both legs.
A NSW Police mounted officer on horseback on the sands of Sydney’s iconic Bondi Beach