“There’s a tremendous correlation between sexually deviant behavior and crimes against children and crimes against animals,” said [Senator Nan] Rich, a Sunrise Democrat. “This is long overdue. These are heinous crimes. And people belong in jail.”
"sexually deviant?" . . . wonder if Florida has laws against "hate speech?"
-- From "Bestiality closer to becoming illegal in Florida" by Marc Caputo, St. Petersburg Times 3/10/09
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.
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.
After the unanimous committee vote, Sen. 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.
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