Deer Carcass Humper Argues: A Carcass Is Not Legally An "Animal"

The law forbidding sex with animals, it seems, all depends on what the word "animal" means.

If it's dead, it ain't a deer, his motion argues; it's just venison.

-Meet Bryan James Hathaway, alleged venison lover. The Wisconsin man, 20, is facing charges that he had sex last month with a dead deer. Hathaway, who previously has served time for killing a horse he intended to sexually assault, allegedly found the deer in a ditch alongside a roadway. Now Hathaway's lawyer has filed a court motion (a copy of which you'll find here) arguing that since the animal was already dead, Hathaway should not face a misdemeanor rap of sexual gratification with an animal. "The statute does not prohibit one from having sex with a carcass," lawyer Fredric Anderson wrote in the motion filed in Douglas County Circuit Court.

Take away the ick factor, and take away the likelihood that this is the sort of character it would probably behoove us to have spending the majority of his time in the criminal justice system anyhow.

And then his argument sort of makes sense. Do we care, legally, if one humping an inanimate object? (And -- does your wife count?)

I know it's weird. Should it be criminal?

From someone who says, specifically, "You didn't get this from me."

But I'll just tell you.

It was John Murtha.

posted by Ace at 04:52 PM

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