Three years ago, a British Columbia man was found guilty of 13 counts of sexually molesting his two stepdaughters, subjecting them to a decade of abuse, and a lifetime of trauma. The most appalling charge was one count of bestiality. Apparently, the stepfather forced the older stepdaughter into sexual relations with the family dog by luring the dog to her genitals with peanut butter and documenting the sex act. However, the defending pervert successfully challenged the bestiality conviction in the BC Court of Appeal this month based on the fact that the sex act he facilitated between the dog and his stepdaughter did not include penetration. Because, according to the law set in 1945, bestiality can only be defined as “buggery with an animal and required penetration.”
The stepfather (who has to remain nameless in the press to protect the identity of his stepdaughters) argued that what he committed was not actually bestiality, since their was no penetrative sex. The Supreme Court agreed, 6-1, rejecting the notion that bestiality is an offense encompassing sexual activity of any kind between a person and an animal.
“The term ‘bestiality’ has a well-established legal meaning and refers to sexual intercourse between a human and an animal. Penetration has always been understood to be an essential element of bestiality,” wrote Justice Thomas Cromwell on behalf of the court. “Parliament may wish to consider whether the present provisions adequately protect children and animals. But it is for Parliament, not the courts, to expand the scope of criminal liability for this ancient offense.”
Lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice, Camille Labchuk, said the Supreme Court’s decision on this case was a huge wake-up call that the criminal laws protecting animals in Canada are completely dated. Labchuk is calling the Parliament to step in and fix the laws to reflect modern beliefs. She also urged the government to support a bill put forth by Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith. His bill is more about protecting animals in the PETA sense of the word (ending the practice of shark finning and banning the sale of cat and dog fur, for example), but the Liberal government does not support it. (They claim the bill would have a huge effect on prosperous hunting and fishing groups who rely on animal use for the economy.)
Although Justice Rosalie Abella agreed that the legal definition is archaic and should be updated, it has not. Basically, bestiality is totally legal in our fair nation as long as there is no “D” in the “V” involved. I know this is a disturbing subject for most readers, but I am completely and clinically numb to it after completing a heavy research piece for Broadly last year about zoophiles and bestiality.
Zoophilia is defined as “extreme love for animals, specifically abnormal sexual attraction to animals,” while bestiality is “any sexual relations between a person and an animal.” During my study, I spent hours in the deepest, darkest corners of the web talking to people who participated in these sex acts and had, what they defined as, deep and meaningful relationships with their German Shepherds. Half of them tried to convince me that what they were doing was not harming, but enriching, the animal, while many women did not care and were just into deviant sex acts of many kinds.
I picked the brain of Dr. Hani Milestski who’s book Understanding Bestiality and Zoophilia was the most extensive study to date. I dove head first into the back catalogue of Bodil Jorgensen, the Danish pig farmer turned Queen of Bestiality who made one of the first bestiality films to ever hit porn success. It’s strange how something so disgusting becomes mundane once you are completely immersed in the research and looking at it devoid of subjection. Kind of like the way a gynecologist sees a vagina after her 500th patient. I remember having dinner with my husband and telling him what I had read that day about what happens if dog semen finds its way into a human vagina. He looked at me like I had fucked a dog myself.
Now, a year later and completely removed from my research, when I saw the headline about this case earlier this month I was disgusted. Even more so I was disgusted that this perverted stepfather was trying to get off on a technicality to lessen his charges. The man forced his stepdaughter to have her genitals licked by a dog. He deserves to be coated in Cheez Whiz and thrown into a pit of rabid, rabies-infested pit bulls. Though this did not happen (because we are too soft up here in Canada), he will be serving 14 years in jail and hopefully get the Jeffrey Dahmer treatment, instead of leeching tax payers dollars to pay for his “three hots and a cot.”
Dear Canada, Oh Canada. While you are messing with the national anthem, maybe you can update our bestiality charges to involve more than just penetrative intercourse?
EMAIL MISH
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