A Vancouver man charged with bestiality for allegedly having sex with his pet Rottweiler intends to plead guilty, Crown lawyers said Monday.
Brian Anthony Cutteridge was charged in February after his veterinarian approached the SPCA with concerns about an infection one of his dogs was suffering from.
His trial was set to begin this week in Vancouver provincial court, but the case was adjourned to Oct. 2 after prosecutors announced they anticipated a guilty plea in the case.
“Ultimately it’s in the hands of the accused whether a plea’s actually entered, but what’s anticipated is that there’ll be a guilty plea,” Crown spokesman Neil MacKenzie told CTV News. “That’s based on discussions the Crown has had with counsel for Cutteridge.”
The SPCA investigated the accused, seizing three of his dogs during the process. Marcie Moriarty, the agency’s manager of cruelty investigations, said two of the dogs have since been adopted while one was put down.
“Unfortunately one of them was suffering from an untreatable medical condition and it was decided that the most humane thing was to put him down,” Moriarty said.
The dog’s medical condition had nothing to do with the allegations against Cutteridge, she added.
The SPCA says Cutteridge has written papers and posted comments online arguing that the prohibition of zoophilia – sex between humans and animals – is unconstitutional.
CTV News found one online posting by a Brian Anthony Cutteridge titled “For the Love of Dog: On the Legal Prohibition of Zoophilia in Canada and the United States.”
The author wrote, “Laws which criminalize zoophilia based on societal abhorrence of such acts rather than any real harm caused by such acts are an unjust and unconstitutional infringement on individual liberty.”
The SPCA’s position is that bestiality is harmful to animals and should remain illegal. It currently carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison in Canada.
