Lawmakers to hear bestiality bill Tuesday
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/
By JASON MCBRIDE
Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, will present her anti-bestiality bill to the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday afternoon. Bestiality is not illegal in
“Animals cannot give permission, contrary to what people may think,” Roach said. “So you go under the assumption that they are innocent.” Susan Michaels, co-founder of Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal rescue sanctuary in Sultan, came to Roach with the idea for the legislation last year because of the Enumclaw case.
“It brought to light to many what happens behind closed doors, what no one wants to talk about,” Michaels said.
The measure – Senate Bill 6417 – would make having sex with an animal, alive or dead, a class C felony, which would result in a one to three month sentence in most cases, according to Dan Satterberg, chief of staff at the King County Prosecutor’s Office.
Satterberg and other proponents say sexual predators often have a history that includes sexual abuse of animals. “It is frequent to see that they began their offense with an animal,” Satterberg said.“Obviously, animals can’t testify 5 right now, there’s nothing that can be done that can bring that kind of attention of the court.”
The bill originally included language that would have made videotaping – as was done in the Enumclaw incident – of animal sex illegal, but sponsors took it out because profiting from electronic images is already illegal under the state’s laws against lewd matter.
No comments:
Post a Comment