A Cascade man was arrested outside of a Dubuque bar on Sunday night with a pet zebra and a macaw parrot in the front seat of his truck.
Officers charged Jerald Reiter, 55, with OWI. Police reports say officers stopped him in the parking lot of the Dog House Lounge as he drove away in his truck. According to police, field sobriety tests showed Reiter had a blood alcohol level of .14. The legal limit in Iowa is .08.
. . .
Reiter disputes the charges and says he realized he was too drunk to drive and was about to let a passenger in the truck to take the wheel when he was arrested.
(emphasis mine). I am not sure Mr. Reiter has presented much of a defense given that he was actually behind the wheel when he was pulled over. However, I am not well-versed in the details of Iowa's operating while intoxicated laws so maybe this approach has some merit.
In any event, Mr. Reiter realized he was too drunk to drive and was about to let a passenger take the wheel. Sadly, the article doesn't mention whether the parrot or the zebra was prepared to slide over and handle the driving duties. Given that neither animal has opposable thumbs, it is unclear how well either would done steering the truck. Perhaps this will come out at trial.
The article made me wonder if perhaps there is a fine line between knowing one is too drunk to drive and yet being too drunk to know that having an animal drive home is a bad idea.
(h/t to Mark Nezil for bringing this to my attention)
Seems like the parrot would be a better navigator than driver.
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