Beast of Burden: Anti-Animal Sex Law Rehashed

Senate pushing for overdue yet under-supported bestiality law again

The Florida Senate is taking another shot at passing the long overdue law prohibiting sex with animals.

The law, unanimously passed by the Senate on Monday, would make it a first-degree misdemeanor to commit bestiality, with a penalty of up to a year in jail.

The Senate had passed a similar bill last year, but it fizzled out before it came before the House. A House bill has a similar measure but it has yet to be debated.

Florida is one of only a dozen or so states that don't have a law against bestiality on the books.

Sen. Nan Rich, of Weston, has pushed for the bestiality law for years and was a sponsor of the latest bill. Rich even earned herself an invitation to "The Daily Show" for her tough stance on human-animal sex.

There's a tremendous correlation between sexually deviant behavior and crimes against children and crimes against animals," Rich said last March. "This is long overdue. These are heinous crimes. And people belong in jail."

In stressing the need for such a law, Rich cited recent cases of bestiality including a Panhandle man who was suspected of accidentally asphyxiating a family goat during a sex act and the abuse of a horse in the Keys.

Despite Rich's prediction that the bill would easily pass last year, it ultimately failed. Here's hoping it passes this year.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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