Florida currently has no law against bestiality. Senator Nan Rich, D-Weston is seeking to change that. Her wording, though has me confused. In this article: Newspaper report it says (bolding mine):
Now, I can see why you might want the second and third “knowingly”, but why the first?
“Your honor, I had no idea it was a cocker spaniel on the other side of that glory hole…”
More truth that you know. Under another law, without that word, you could get thrown in jail if your cocker (snerk!) spaniel started licking your package while you were asleep, and someone saw it.
Thanks, silenus, that was what I figured. It reads kinda odd, but that’s the law.
More generally, under modern penal theory, almost all criminal statues have two components, mens rea and actus reus. Actus reus is the prohibited act, what most people think of as the crime (“screwing the pooch” being the example here).
However, in addition to a prohibited act, the actor must have the mens rea, the culpable mental state, identified in the statute, in this case “knowingly”. Other commonly used types of mens rea in criminal statutes are “intentionally”, “recklessly”, and “negligently”. A limited number of crimes are strict liability crimes, where the act is criminal regardless of the mens rea of the actor, such as statutory rape, where if you have sex with someone underage it is criminal regardless of your knowledge or understanding of the facts.
Another reason that “knowingly” is important in this statute is that it does not only cover the act of beastiality, but also aiding or permitting someone to commit the act. If you innocently but foolishly let Uncle Creepy dogsit your rottweiler and you walk in to find a rutting rottie, you have aided or permitted the act, but not done so knowlingly.
I’m glad Silenus was able to provide a reasonable ‘unknowingly’ scenario. I was imagining a really wierd form of sleepwalking.
Covers off the dog humping you.
You don’t understand: Chunks is my dog!
OK,OK you just wont let it drop will you?
For years I’ve worked for “Help the Aged” in my time off,decorating old peoples houses,mowing their lawns.
I rescued a young woman from a gang of muggers a couple of years ago and received a police commendation for doing so.
When I won a hundred thousand pounds on the lottery I donated half of it to Oxfam.
And am I known locally as"L4Lthe Helpful"?
Am I known as “L4L the Hero”?
Or even “L4L the Charitable”?
Oh no !
One fucking sheep …
Don’t you mean “Fucking one sheep”?
Poking a puppy? Doing a dog? Hitting on a horse? Coveting a cow? (Coveting an ass, in the Biblical sense?) Hooking up with a hamster?
Just forget you read any of that. Thank you.