The act of bestiality is a step closer to becoming illegal in Florida now
that a Senate committee voted to slap a third-degree felony charge on anyone who
has sex with animals.

Florida is one of only 16 states that still permit bestiality -– a fact that
animal-rights activist and Sunrise Sen. Nan Rich learned to her horror when a
Panhandle man three years ago was suspected of accidentally asphyxiating a family
goat with which he was copulating.

“There’s a tremendous correlation between sexually deviant behavior and
crimes against children and crimes against animals,” said Rich, a Sunrise
Democrat. “This is long overdue. These are heinous crimes. And people belong in
jail.”

But the Mossy Head man suspected of assaulting Meg the Goat was never
charged, because law enforcement officials could never link him to the crime
scene. The suspect was arrested in a separate goat-abducting months later, said
Walton County Assistant State Attorney Walter Parker.

Rich’s proposal was amended to target only those who derived or helped others
derive “sexual gratification” from an animal. The amendment specified that
conventional dog-judging contests and animal-husbandry practices are
permissible.

That last provision tripped up Miami Democratic Sen. Larcenia Bullard.

“People are taking these animals as their husbands? What’s husbandry?” she
asked. Some senators stifled their laughter as Chairman Charlie Dean explained
that husbandry it was the rearing and caring of animals.

Bullard didn’t get it.

“So that maybe have been the reason the lady was so upset about that monkey?"
Bullard asked, referring to a Connecticut case where a woman’s suburban chimpanzee
want mad and was shot.

“I’m not familiar with that particular incident or case,” Dean said.

After the unanimous committee vote, Rich predicted the bill would pass
easily this year. She said bestiality used to be illegal in Florida, but the
statute was ruled unconstitutional because it was considered too broad.

Rich noted that bestiality cases have cropped up throughout the state,
including the abuse of a seeing-eye dog in Tallahassee and a horse in the
Florida Keys. The Mossy Head case gained added attention when a local man
produced T-shirts with slogans like “Baaa Means No!” and “What Happens in Mossy
Head, Stays in Mossy Head.”

“It’s interesting,” Rich said. “People either giggle or get very silent. A
lot of people don’t believe something like this can happen. But it does.”

-- MARC CAPUTO

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