Never seen Doyle so angry, but when someone loves horses as much as he does, he hates seeing them not being taken care of. The day we went and got him, we had papers from the police that gave us legal authority to pick the animal up. We had no problem with the owner, as he wasn't there. And I was glad he wasn't. Doyle was so crazy angry, I don't know what he might have done, and I hate the thought that I maybe would have had to go bail his ass out of jail for beating hell out of the owner!
As I'm not a member of the Arizona State bar, I couldn't officially help try the case, but I did a lot of assistance with the para-legals getting all the paperwork done. Arizona does not take kindly to animal cruelty. Cruelty to animals can mean the individual that's cruel to animals can also be more likely to be cruel to people. Prisons are full of people that did serious crimes to others that had a history of animal cruelty. This particular owner already had two cases of serious animal cruelty brought against him in years past, so this time it was a felony. He's a rich bastard, so he bought the best of defense, but they couldn't save him. He's still out of jail on appeal, but he had to fork over a big chunk of money to do that! The verdict, after a long, drawn out trial, was guilty of a whole slew of counts, with the penalties being pretty rough - 5 years in prison, 10 years probation, $500,00 to be distributed to the new owners of the animals to assist in the animals care until the end of life, a $250,000 fine, and a court order banning him from ever owning any animal of any kind ever again!
The defense came up with all kinds of bogus reasons, from hardship (hardly!) to blaming others he hired to care for the animals, and other bullshit. Truth is, he doesn't give a shit about animals, and I don't know why he insisted on having any! Besides the horse, there were a Shetland pony, pair of goats, small herd of alpacas, 3 donkeys, and an investigation ongoing that's trying to determine if he had another horse and three dogs missing that he used to own. If they find any remains of the animals buried or otherwise disposed of, and it can be determined they died of neglect and/or abuse, this guy's in more legal trouble. Doyle and I were at the trial every day, I was called as a witness, but thank goodness Doyle wasn't. He had a hard enough time holding his temper when he heard some of the defense's pleas. There were some days when we have to leave early. Last thing a spectator wants to do in a trial is to stand up and beller obscenities at the alleged guilty party!
Bill The Percheron Doyle helped me with the song I wrote, and after I had it all recorded, he asked me if hecould record his own on the subject. Well, it took us about a week of long sessions in the studio writing and trying out the song before Doyle could calm down enough to lay down his vocal. It was just Doyle and I, late one night that recorded it. He just wanted me to play a jazzy piano for him to sing with, and it worked out okay. It helped him get it all out of his system, so I'm glad we did it. The Percheron is doing well, put a lot of weight on since we've had him, grown even taller. He looks really good, and waits for Doyle and I to come see him every day. When Doyle's three Grandkids come to visit they make a beeline to see Bill. Yep, his name's just Bill, but it seems to fit him! He'll hang his big head low enough for the kids to scratch his chin!
A happy ending for this horse, that's for sure! The passion Doyle has for this animal can be heard in the recording. Delmar said it took a lot of takes for Doyle to calm the language down to the cussing that's on the recording!
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