MPs demand tougher bestiality laws

11 March 2004

AMSTERDAM — After media reports that a man cannot be convicted despite being caught having sex with a pony, Dutch MPs have demanded that the Cabinet take action against bestiality.

The 65-year-old suspect was caught almost red-handed in Utrecht on Monday, but cannot be prosecuted because having sex with animals is not illegal if the animal is not hurt.

Government coalition party Christian Democrat CDA and main opposition party PvdA have demanded the law be sharpened, news agency ANP reported.

Both parties said legislation must explicitly state that sex with animals is banned if it negatively impacts the health of the animal. And that is very quickly apparent, they claimed.

But the populist LPF, Socialist Party (SP) and green-left GroenLinks are in favour of a total ban on bestiality. LPF MP Joost Eerdmans said sex with an animal is “pure cruelty”.

“Sex with an animal is a far-reaching attack on the physical integrity of the animal and can never occur with the consent of the animal,” he said.

CDA MP Henk Jan Ormel, who is also a veterinarian, also demanded that a ban be imposed on the distribution of photos and videos of people having sex with animals. Porn shops in Amsterdam sell thousands of videos and DVDs featuring bestiality annually.

The demands come after pony owners Fred and Ria Herszkowicz entered the stall containing their three-year-old pony Bella and discovered a 65-year-old man with his trousers around his ankles on Monday.

He ran off but was caught a short time later by police. He had to be released again because the animal had no visible injuries.

There has been a string of unsolved vicious sex attacks on horses in the east of the Netherlands in recent years. There has been no suggestion that Monday’s case was linked to these attacks.

Subject: Dutch news