Owner fined for walking wheelchair-bound cat without a leash

Pooh Bear the cat's front legs work fine, but his back legs don't work at all. His owner Yvonne Steel from Melbourne, Florida, has replaced those back legs with wheels. She got the little device on eBay and she calls it a wheelchair.

She takes Pooh Bear for a walk every day in a grassy area next to Wells Park. He needs the exercise for his back legs. On Tuesday Brevard County Animal Services issued her with $230 in tickets for failing to have Pooh Bear and McKenzie, a Chihuahua, on a leash, and for a rabies shot violation.

"She had been warned it was not legal. Basically, we have someone that just is not getting the fact that you have to be in control of your animal when it's off your property," said Capt. Bob Brown with Brevard County Animal Services. "That was my very first knowledge that cats could not be allowed off the leash. I wouldn't even know where to put the leash to be quite honest," said Steel.

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Animal services said there are no exceptions to the leash law, even for disabled animals. "Your animal could be injured. It could be hurt. It could run out in the street. It could be attacked by another animal. It's just the law that we have to follow," said Brown. "The fact there's so much crime here, they should have been looking into pedophiles, people with knives," said Steel.