Bestiality is legal in Canada as long as no penetration is involved, according to a shocking Supreme Court of Canada ruling Thursday.
While bestiality is a criminal offence in Canada, the top court ruled the legal definition is much more limited than how it has been interpreted for decades. It all goes back to the 1800s Church of England trying to ban any sex acts that were seen as unnatural.
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.
We broke down the strange history of these laws back in November.
The case before the Supreme Court involved a man who sexually abused his teenaged stepdaughters. On multiple occasions he forced them to put peanut butter over their genitals so the family dog would lick it off.
The man was convicted of 14 charges, including two counts of bestiality, and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment. The two bestiality charges have now been overturned.
Parliament will now have to draft new bestiality laws to cover non-penetrative contact, if it so chooses.
“Any expansion of criminal liability for this offence is within Parliament’s exclusive domain,” says the ruling.
Supreme Court Justice Rosalie Abella was the lone dissenter.
“Acts with animals that have a sexual purpose are inherently exploitative whether or not penetration occurs,” she wrote.
