US man charged with drunk driving after attempting to leave a bar with his pet zebra and parrot in the front of his truck.

Jerald Reiter a farmer from Dubuque - located on his home state's border with Illinois and Wisconsin - was stopped on Sunday 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, KCRG-TV reported.

Reiter told the Des Moines Register that 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 told the paper, "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 realized 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 released from the Dubuque County Jail on Monday.

Read more at KCRG-TV.

Originally published as Man held after taking zebra, parrot to bar