Police: Cowboy who rode across bridge abused his 2 horses

NEW YORK (AP) — An 80-year-old man who has been riding around the country on horseback, saying he was trying to call attention to starving children, was arrested Thursday on animal cruelty charges after investigators concluded his horses were malnourished.

On Thursday, police announced more serious charges: two counts of animal cruelty based on examinations of the horses by veterinarians of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Delaware-based animal advocate Christine Whaley, who started a group with a Facebook page called Stop Doc Mishler, applauded the arrest.

Stop Doc Mishler members described Mishler as a homeless man who had for years abused the animals that took him on what he calls his God-sent mission, carrying a Bible and quoting scriptures.

After a childhood in Indiana, Mishler worked for a printing company, then as a bail bondsman before attending Western Michigan University for several years, studying philosophy, according to Pennington and others who met him along his routes.