1115.org

The St. Petersburg Times blog brings us this priceless piece of politica:

The act of bestiality is a step closer to becoming illegal in Florida now that a Senate committee voted to slap a third-degree felony charge on anyone who has sex with animals.

Florida is one of only 16 states that still permit bestiality -– a fact that animal-rights activist and Sunrise Sen. Nan Rich learned to her horror when a Panhandle man three years ago was suspected of accidentally asphyxiating a family goat with which he was copulating.
[...]
Rich’s proposal was amended to target only those who derived or helped others derive “sexual gratification” from an animal. The amendment specified that conventional dog-judging contests and animal-husbandry practices are permissible.

That last provision tripped up Miami Democratic Sen. Larcenia Bullard.

“People are taking these animals as their husbands? What’s husbandry?” she asked. Some senators stifled their laughter as Chairman Charlie Dean explained that husbandry it was the rearing and caring of animals.

Bullard didn’t get it.

“So that maybe have been (sic) the reason the lady was so upset about that monkey?” Bullard asked, referring to a Connecticut case where a woman’s suburban chimpanzee want mad and was shot.

The Bullard gaffe is truly hilarious.

But I’m still searching for a rational explanation why, in enacting legislation that makes bestiality a felony, you need to clarify that “conventional dog-judging contests and animal-husbandry practices” are not covered by the act.