Domestic Life Chez Clanger: In bed, Boxing Day morning
My Darling Beloved (darth_hamster) has asked me a question.
Me: Hmmm... I'll have to check. Pass me that really thick dark blue book called Blackstone's, will you?
(Riffle of pages)
Me: Well, section 69(1)(b) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 makes bestiality an offence, but only with a living animal. And section 70(1)(b) criminalises necrophilia, but only with a dead person.
DH: So if Fred shoots his horse then has sex with it...?
Me: ...He hasn't, on the face of it, actually broken the law...
It was so much simpler when friends and family asked about root-undermined fences, or copyright in old photographs.
Addendum: As I went on to explain, necrophiliac bestiality (bestial necrophilia?) would, if done it public, almost certainly lead to a conviction for the handy all-purpose common-law offence of outraging public decency (which I've wittered on about before.) And of course there's the legality of shooting the horse, although having looked up the law on animal welfare my understanding is that it's only an offence to cause suffering to an animal you own; killing it quickly and humanely is not against the law.
Me: Hmmm... I'll have to check. Pass me that really thick dark blue book called Blackstone's, will you?
(Riffle of pages)
Me: Well, section 69(1)(b) of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 makes bestiality an offence, but only with a living animal. And section 70(1)(b) criminalises necrophilia, but only with a dead person.
DH: So if Fred shoots his horse then has sex with it...?
Me: ...He hasn't, on the face of it, actually broken the law...
It was so much simpler when friends and family asked about root-undermined fences, or copyright in old photographs.
Addendum: As I went on to explain, necrophiliac bestiality (bestial necrophilia?) would, if done it public, almost certainly lead to a conviction for the handy all-purpose common-law offence of outraging public decency (which I've wittered on about before.) And of course there's the legality of shooting the horse, although having looked up the law on animal welfare my understanding is that it's only an offence to cause suffering to an animal you own; killing it quickly and humanely is not against the law.