History
Until recently the earliest known case of bestiality was made famous by an account by Dr. Delamain in 1776. Dr. Delamain also documented it in his book, The Anatomy of Cruelty, in which he describes a convicted criminal committing bestiality in prison with his dog, when the criminal was exposed to the dog during his rape of an older woman.
In 1776, Dr. William Hamilton, a Scottish surgeon, first stated that he had seen a convict commit bestiality with his dog. He made this account in a book entitled Essays Moral and Philosophical, in 1775, but it was not published until 1779. In this essay, Dr. Hamilton reported having seen a convicted criminal rape and murder an older woman, but before it was finished the man's own dog attacked and killed the dog.
Another of the earliest reports of bestiality was made by Malthus in 1798. The description he gave was brief: the man was charged with having committed bestiality, but he was not named or any details given.
In 1802, Dr. David Guthrie, a Scottish physician and writer, first reported on bestiality in his book A Treatise on the Physical Signs and Symptoms of Mental Diseases. In it, he stated that he had witnessed a prisoner commit bestiality on a cow while in prison.
Only in the 20th century did bestiality come to be considered a crime. Previously, it was not regarded as a crime; it was merely immoral or potentially unhealthy. Even then, however, it was not seen as an actual crime. Thus, the only existing law against bestiality was the 1868 New York law against "man or beast procuring the commission of a crime or misdemeanor." In order to convict a person under this law, the prosecutor had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant had committed a crime or misdemeanor while in the company of a horse, donkey, mule, or other animal. This law was repealed in 1973.
In 1976, the state of California passed a law that made bestiality illegal when committed by a person with a mental disorder that makes them unable to distinguish between what is human and what is not.
Many of the earliest bestiality laws were written in the context of sodomy laws. This is because sodomy laws and bestiality laws were at one time considered synonymous. Indeed, the first English sodomy law was ac619d1d87
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