4 months ago
It was a law no one ever wanted to see put to the test.
Two years ago, the Tennessee legislature put into statute what most people assumed should go without saying -- that it is illegal to have sex with an animal in the state.
But prosecutors across Middle Tennessee have cause to be glad that someone spelled that felony out. No less than three bestiality cases have come up in separate counties in recent months.
Three people stand accused of engaging in sex acts with farm animals in Maury County. In Humphreys County, a youth football coach was already under investigation for child rape when police reportedly found images of bestiality on his cell phone.
And in Nashville, police charged a man and a woman under the new statute after a tipster turned over photos of them having sexual contact with a dog.
Plenty of people cracked jokes about the bestiality bill when it came up in the legislature in 2007.
But District Attorney General Mike Bottoms, who is prosecuting the Maury County case, said he's not sure what he could have charged the Maury County defendants with if the statute hadn't been on the books.
"There are laws against cruelty to animals, but they dealt more into the neglect of the animals, which wasn't the case here," Bottoms said.
The Maury County case revolves around 58-year-old James Tait. Audiences who watched the critically acclaimed documentary Zoo a few years ago heard Tait's voice, narrating his part in the story of a Washington State man who died of internal injuries after a sexual encounter with a horse.
It was Tait who videotaped the fatal encounter and later drove the dying man to the hospital. The case prompted Washington state to criminalize bestiality after frustrated law enforcement officials were unable to charge Tait with anything more than trespassing in a stable.
Maury County investigators found photographic and video evidence of similar activity at the farm on Double Branch Road.
"We had no idea this sort of thing was happening," said Maury County Detective Terry Chandler. "This goes on. These people live all across the United States, and they know each other."
by Jennifer Brooks
The Tennessean
