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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - The Dutch parliament voted unanimously Thursday to outlaw bestiality and pornography involving animals. Sex with animals and the making of animal pornography now will carry a punishment of up to six months in jail under the measure. Current Dutch law forbids bestiality only when animals are found to have been mistreated. Animal pornography is explicitly forbidden in 80 countries and pornographers had lobbied fiercely against a Dutch ban, said lawmaker Harm Evert Waalkens, who introduced the measure. "The Netherlands is now a magnet for perversities and we don't want that," Waalkens said.

DENVER -- Democrats pounced on Colorado's Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez and his newly chosen running mate Janet Rowland on Tuesday for comments she made five months ago comparing same-sex marriage to bestiality. In a March 17 broadcast of the Rocky Mountain PBS program "Colorado State of Mind," Rowland said homosexuality is an alternative lifestyle, adding, "For some people, the alternative lifestyle is bestiality. Do we allow a man to marry a sheep?" Democrat Bill Ritter's campaign called the remarks "insensitive, close-minded, derogatory and crude" and demanded an apology. "This shows just how far to the right and out-of-touch the...

WELLINGTON, New Zealand - When the time came, Shrek the wild and woolly sheep went as meekly as a lamb. After dodging the shearer’s blades for six years, the New Zealand hermit merino was shorn on Wednesday under blazing arc lights before a nationwide television audience. The nine-year-old did not bat an eyelid during the 25-minute operation as former world champion shearer Peter Casserley used old-fashioned cutting blades, like a giant pair of scissors, to clip the heavily matted wool. The fleece, described as “rock hard” in places, was 15 inches long and weighed in at 59 lbs.