Caddo Parish Duo Pleads Not Guilty to Crimes against Nature

Earlier this week as reported to Doll Stanley, our Justice for Animals Campaign Director in Mississippi by a court clerk in Shreveport, Louisiana, 24-year-old Celina Cabrera and 41-year-old Booker Talioterro Thomas, Jr. appeared in court where they pleaded not guilty to the charge of crimes against nature for allegedly producing a video of Celina engaged in a sexual act with a male dog. Celina is said to have removed a male dog from the Caddo Parish Animal Shelter where she has been employed as a kennel worker, and to have taken him to her residence where past shelter employee Booker allegedly videoed Cabrera sexually engaged with the dog.

Zoophilia, the crime of sexual assault or exploitation of other than human animals, is termed "buggery" in South Carolina, and "perverted," "abominable," "detestable," crimes against nature in Louisiana and "unnatural" in varied states. The act of a human sexually violating another species is a crime in all but 14 states in the USA. In some states, the act is a crime if minors are coerced to engage with another species. In other states, it is the filming of the act that is a crime. The laws and penalties vary widely.

Some states do not have a bestiality law, but do prosecute the act under animal cruelty laws. In 23 states,zoophilia is a misdemeanor and in 19 states it's a felony. Hawaii, Kentucky, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia and Wyoming, and the District of Columbia lack such laws. The only federal law pertaining to this act is 10 U.S.C.A. § 925 of military conduct. Some states bring offenders under sexual assault registry laws.

California and Oregon have taken a step further and have termed the act "sexual assault of an animal" assessing that animals are not capable of consenting to the act with free will.

While our Justice for Animals Campaign of Mississippi agrees with a felony category for these acts, we continue to point to the fact that it remains a misdemeanor in many states to torture and dogs, cats and any animal not categorized as "livestock."