I can’t believe a thread with this kind of a topic winds up with a news link as a cite. Way to go, kanicbird.
After after you rode him, he demanded that you sit on his back and let him walk somewhere.
DUI? No. DUI requires “driving”, and driving requires a “motor vehicle”. It’s in the definition of the offense.
No, driving does not require a motor vehicle—or at least, it depends on how the law is worded in the jurisdiction in question. No doubt there are DUI laws which are worded in such a way as to prohibit operating any vehicle, such as a bicycle or horse-drawn carriage, while drunk.
That said, when I first saw the thread title I imagined the question would be about criminal responsibility in the case where a drunken animal is behind the wheel of a car. A chimpanzee or other great ape could certainly drive a suitably modified car.
And that definition will be based upon the specific law(s) in the jurisdiction where it occurred.
Of course, YHTMV (Your Horse Trots May Vary).
Darn you anyway. Missed the chance to post that reference by less than an hour.
One data point out of at least 51, NJ law says “a person who operates** a motor vehicle** while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, narcotic, hallucinogenic or habit-producing drug…” A motor vehicle is defined as ’ “Motor vehicle" includes all vehicles propelled otherwise than by muscular power,
excepting such vehicles as run only upon rails or tracks and motorized bicycles."
So no you can’t get a DUI on a horse in NJ.
That’s called horse stealing, or rustling.
And in much of the western USA, that’s a far more serious charge than DUI.
While I was looking for examples of what constituted a ‘vehicle’ under the Ohio law, I did find a case in which someone was unsuccessfully prosecuted for drunk horseback riding. The offense is defined here to include any vehicle (as well as those ubiquitous “trackless trolleys”). As I recall–it’s been a few years now–the judge concluded that a sober horse had more sense than a drunk rider, and was not a vehicle for purposes of the OVI law. I don’t recall any speculation as to drunk horses with sober riders, though.
I would imagine it would the equivalent of knowingly driving a non-roadworthy vehicle, rather than DUI. It could also, as Scubaqueen says, be treated as animal cruelty.
What if you taught an orangutan to drive, then it got a hold of some whiskey…
If you are a horse, and find yourself in this predicament, and the cops ask you to recited the alphabet backwards, whatever you do, don’t say “I couldn’t do that if I was sober!”
In your scenario am I Clint Eastwood or not?
For a humourous novel involving drunken animals, including a horse, try The Stray Lamb by Thorne Smith.
Excellent fun!
Fermented apples are a favorite for many horses and similar animals, in fact. I’ve heard of people around here having to cut back apple trees that were near pasture fences specifically to limit the horses’ access to them. They would binge when they could.
And a family friend has a dairy farm, and noticed long ago that his cows really seemed to like the damp silage from the bottom of the silo.
Of course, the amount of alcohol needed to get a horse drunk isn’t necessarily relevant, since there are other intoxicants. A horse might get into locoweed, for instance.
There has a few years ago a bunch of birds were flying into windows in a city and no one knew why until they blood tested them and found alcohol in the blood. It was decided they were getting drunk off local berries