Driving Under the Influence ... On a HORSE??!!!!

One of the saddest things about the high-priced pet industry is that the rights of an expensive animal mean very little to someone who is anxious to sell and a buyer who has plenty of money to buy whatever he or she wants. The buying and selling of pets is a multimillion-dollar industry, and that includes BIG pets as well.

March 31, 2007 - Sylvania, Alabama

Melissa Byrum York, 40 years old enough to know better, was arrested on a charge of driving under the influence on a horse. Officer John Seals had encountered Ms. York charging along on her steed through town at great risk to herself and the animal, heedless of the policeman's efforts to apprehend her. He asked her repeatedly to dismount. In response, she would kick the animal to goad it into a run. "She wouldn't stop. She kept riding the horse and going on" said Police Chief Brad Gregg.

Ms. York then used the horse to ram a police car and finally tried to dismount, only to get a foot stuck in a stirrup. After she was taken into custody, it was discovered that she possessed crystal methamphetamine, marijuana and other drug-related paraphernalia (who could have seen THAT coming!) and she was charged with seven counts: driving (or riding) under the influence, drug possession, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting arrest, second-degree assault, attempting to elude police and cruelty to an animal which was reported to be "not in the best of health, but ... still alive."

What Ms. York should have been punished for was simply owning a horse in the first place. Equine rights have always been dubious and poorly defended. Today these beautiful, sensitive creatures are hardly protected at all, in spite of whatever legislation may be on the books. Any jerk who can come up with the purchase price can find someone who is eager to unload a horse, no questions asked.

Horses are widely loved and also prized as "status symbol" pets but the modern reality is that their proper care calls for an extraordinary amount of money, great personal sacrifice, and the genuine respect and affection of an owner who gives a damn for the well being of someone beside his or herself. Sadly, nowadays, those requirements are sometimes hard to come by.

Sources:

Alabama Woman on Horseback Charged with DUI, Associated Press,
posted on Yahoo News, April 3, 2007

Alabama Woman on Horseback Charged with DUI, www.Miami Herald.com, Apr. 3, 2007

Woman on Horseback Charged with DUI, www.My58.com., April 3, 2007