Sex acts with pets is OK with the Canadian Supreme Court… as long as it doesn’t involve penetration
- The case involved a man who was convicted of sexually abusing children
- He tried to coach his dog to abuse his stepdaughter by using peanut butter
- An appeal court ruled a bestiality conviction requires sexual penetration
- Animal rights charities want the law urgently updated to protect animals
The
Canadian Supreme Court has ruled that sex acts with a pet are legal as
long as the animal is not penetrated or suffers any form of injury.
The
case involved a man who had been convicted of sexually abusing two of
his step daughters, who had also been convicted of bestiality after he
attempted to make the dog engage in sexual activities with one of the
young girls.
A
lower court convicted the man of bestiality after it heard he smeared
peanut butter on the girl, who was 15 at the time of the abuse, to
entice the dog to lick it off.
The Canadian Supreme Court has ruled
animals can be used for sexual gratification as long as they are not
penetrated because the government has not updated the definition of
bestiality since the 1860s, file photo
The lower court ruled the man was guilty of bestiality because he had received sexual gratification from the act.
However, the man, known only as D.L.W. successfully challenged the bestiality decision in the appeals court.
According to The Canadian Lawyer and Law Times,
The higher court decided that a strict interpretation of the law,
which dates from the English 1861 Offences Against the Person act,
required penetration for a bestiality conviction.
Animal
rights charity Animal Justice then challenged this decision to the
Supreme Court, who ruled that when the Canadian parliament updated the
criminal law relating to sexual offences it did not change the
historically understood meaning of bestiality.
The
Supreme Court said Parliament could have updated the interpretation of
what constituted bestiality if it wished and claimed it was not the role
of the courts to introduce new criminal offences.
According to the ruling:
'Courts will only conclude that a new crime has been created if the
words used to do so are certain and definitive. This approach not only
reflects the appropriate respective roles of Parliament and the courts,
but the fundamental requirement of the criminal law that people must
know what constitutes punishable conduct and what does not, especially
when their liberty is at stake.'
Leading animal rights activist Camille
Labchuck demanded action by the Canadian Government claiming the
current legislation gave a green light to individuals to use animals for
their own sexual gratification
Camille Labchuck of Animal Justice urged the Canadian Parliament to change the law in order to protect children and animals.
Speaking
after the hearing, she said: 'The Supreme Court’s decision is a wake up
call that laws protecting animals are severely out of date. As of
today, Canadian law gives animal abusers license to use animals for
their own sexual gratification. This is completely unacceptable,
contrary to societal expectations, and cannot be allowed to continue.
Peter
Sankoff, who argued the case said: 'As an intervener in the case,
Animal Justice drove home the importance of ensuring our laws protect
animals from sexual abuse.
'This
decision reflects the fact that the Supreme Court was forced to work
with our outdated laws. Although Animal Justice hoped for a different
decision, it is encouraging that both the majority and the dissent
adopted aspects of our arguments, and recognized that protecting animals
is a fundamental societal value.
'Canadians
care deeply about protecting animals from this type of cruelty and
sexual abuse. People who sexually abuse animals often sexually abuse
children as well, as the accused did in this case. Parliament must step
in immediately to fix our outdated laws and protect the vulnerable from
sexual exploitation.'
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