Jerald Reiter a farmer from Dubuque, Iowa – located on his home state’s border with Illinois and Wisconsin – was stopped on in the carpark of the town’s Dog House Lounge on suspicion of drunk driving, with his unusual passengers on the front seat. Police said that field sobriety tests showed that the 55-year-old had a blood alcohol level of .14, almost twice Iowa’s legal limit. When asked about the parrot and the zebra in the car with him, Reiter said he and his girlfriend treat the animals – three-month-old zebra PeeWee and parrot Izzy – like friends and take them to the bar because it sometimes allows animals inside. He said: “I said, ‘Let’s go for a ride.’ I ain’t been away from the farm for almost two months because I’ve been planting corn and everything else. So I opened the door, the zebra jumps in, the macaw loves to go for a ride, so we went for a ride.” However, the creatures were turned away and the bar disputed Reiter’s claim that animals were permitted inside and said that despite its name, not even dogs were allowed in the establishment. Reiter said that as soon as he started driving away from the bar he realised he was too drunk to continue and was about to let a (human) passenger take the wheel but he was stopped by the cops first. He believes a passerby who was taking pictures of the pets may have tipped off police. He was later released from the county jail.
