The Supreme Court of Canada made a pretty crazy ruling about sexual contact with animals on Thursday. The decision was the result of a very sad case in which teenage girls were sexually abused by their stepfather.
The man was convicted of 14 charges and sentenced to 18 years in jail. Two of those charges, both counts of bestiality, have now been overturned due to the Court’s decision. He was charged with bestiality after forcing the girls to put peanut butter on their genitals so the family dog could lick it off. That can certainly be considered child abuse, but it no longer counts as a crime against the dog.
BuzzFeed reports that the laws on bestiality have remained more or less unchanged since coming from England:
The crime of bestiality in Canada stems from the old crime of “buggery.” The original definition of buggery meant anal sex with either another human or an animal. Both were forbidden in England, where Canada’s earliest laws came from.
Over the years the Criminal Code of Canada changed but the definition of bestiality was never explicitly expanded. The court found in a 7-1 ruling Thursday that there needs to be penetration involved for an act with an animal to be a criminal offence.
“There is no hint in any of the parliamentary record that any substantive change to the elements of the offence of bestiality was intended,” the Supreme Court ruled.
Bestiality is now confirmed as solely a penetrative concept above our Northern border.
Image via Flickr.
