When a Man Dies in a Sex Act with a Horse -- What's a Reporter to Do?

A thread on this topic was already pulled, and this one will likely as well, but as long as it's here, check out Seattle's mainstream press' take on it....

"Bestiality has no business in Olympia"

By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr. SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCE

A Seattle man engaged in sexual congress with a horse that led to the man's death from internal bleeding.

King County sheriff's deputies and Enumclaw police say the farm was a wildly popular spot, flagged on the Internet as a haven for people nationwide who relish intercourse with animals.

Suffice it to say, this story would have been a short-lived blurb of the man-bites-dog variety had it not become an issue of legislative urgency.

When bestiality goes to Olympia, it gets your attention.

State Sen. Pam Roach, whose district is home to the farm, plans to introduce legislation that would make it a class C felony to have sex with an animal. The law would make the crime punishable by a $10,000 fine and five years in prison.

Roach offers the following reason for taking action: "These are sex acts against the innocent that have harmful effects."

Unless the innocent talks like Mr. Ed or Roach is a horse whisperer, how can she know the animal was harmed? Such thinking would make sense if the horse keeled over and croaked while the guy lit up a post-session cigarette and dozed off. That would be animal harm followed by human indifference.

A bigger issue is at work here. Experts on extreme animal love say some taboos on non-procreative sex have diminished or are beginning to over time. Masturbation? Check. Oral sex? Check. Anal sex? Check. Human sex with animals remains a towering taboo, booty and the beast.

But as Princeton University philosopher Peter Singer, the father of the animal rights movement, has put it, "Sex with animals does not always involve cruelty."

Roach's good intentions miss this point. Ingrid Newkirk, the founder and president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, was quoted in a 2001 New York Times article that touched on "innocent" human-animal sex acts: "If a girl gets sexual pleasure from riding a horse, does the horse suffer? If not, who cares? If you French-kiss your dog and he or she thinks it's great, is it wrong?"

"We believe all exploitation and abuse is wrong," Newkirk said at the time, but added, "If it isn't exploitation and abuse, it may not be wrong."

P-I columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattlepi.com.

(emphasis added, portions snipped)

(call this asshole and ask him if he wants his kids brought up by the "if it feels good do it mantra")

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/233771_robert23.html

Evening LEL! We so think alike!

How do you report a story about a man who dies while having sex with a horse? With a snigger? Or straight?

Well, let's just say that the local Seattle radio disk jockeys were definitely going for Option Number One.

"Oh!! WILBURRRRR!!!!"

OMG....I was thinking the man was the one 'on top'. I was floored when I read otherwise...I've seen horses, I can't imagine anyone taking that on. What in the world is wrong with these people.

How does someone even come up with the idea of having a horse run them through? The only reasonable explanation that I can come up with is mental illness. What this guy did is beyond a normal person's imagination.

Wonderful.