STATEN ISLAND — The urban cowboy who moseyed into town over the Outerbridge Crossing was arrested Thursday and accused of animal cruelty, police said.
Tod "Doc" Mishler, 80, who rode two horses over the bridge Monday, was arrested at about 10 a.m. after vets found his steeds were dehydrated and one had lameness in the leg due to an untreated infection, a spokeswoman for the NYPD said.
He was charged with torturing, injuring and not feeding animals, the NYPD said.
Mishler — who rode his horses cross-country to raise awareness of childhood hunger — made headlines and caused a traffic jam Monday after he rode the two horses over the Outerbridge Crossing, which is not allowed.
He was slapped with a summons for the ride by the Port Authority, the Staten Island Advance reported.
While Mishler waited at the West Shore Inn to secure permission to take his animals over the Verazzano-Narrows Bridge, police took his horses to get checked out by a vet, the Advance reported.
Despite the District Attorney's office saying Mishler signed a waiver of consent to give up his animals, Mishler rallied outside the park with supporters calling on the city to give back his horses.
"I'm in the room and I'm resting up and I get a knock on the door and one of the tenants says, 'They're taking your horses," he told the Advance. "I put my pants on and run out there, I got my boots on, didn't even have my socks on!"
The vet found that Mishler didn't give the horses proper veterinary care or enough food and water, the NYPD said.
This isn't the first time Mishler's been accused of harming his animals during his cross-country rides.
In 2011, in Madison, Wisconsin, police arrested Mishler after they said his horses looked underfed and dehydrated, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Those charges were later dropped.
Mishler was expected to be arraigned on Friday.
