Man allegedly had sex with guide dog
Tallahasseean charged with breach of peace
By James L. Rosica
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER
Local prosecutors are apparently in a bind: How do they charge a
blind Tallahassee man who has been accused of having sex with his
guide dog?
Florida, like many other states, has no bestiality statute - that
is, a law specifically prohibiting sexual contact between humans
and animals.
So Alan Yoder, 29, originally was charged with felony animal
cruelty, but court records show that charge was dropped last Friday
and replaced with a misdemeanor - disorderly conduct.
Yoder now is charged with a "breach of the peace, by engaging in
sexual activity with a guide dog," according to a court
document.
One of two prosecutors on the case, Assistant State Attorney Owen
McCaul, did not return a call Thursday. The other, Assistant State
Attorney Stephanie Usina, said she could not answer specific
questions, including explaining why the charge was lowered to a
misdemeanor.
Yoder, reached by telephone Thursday, declined to be interviewed.
James D. Varnado, his attorney, said he has filed a not-guilty plea
on his client's behalf but declined to discuss details of the
case.
"However lurid the allegations may be, we should resist a rush to
judgment," he said.
Here's what happened, according to Tallahassee police
reports:
Yoder, who lives in a local apartment complex, last month asked a
female acquaintance to join him in a sex act with the dog, a male
yellow Labrador named "Lucky."
She demurred, but later told a friend about it. That person called
a social worker, who called police.
Investigators spoke to Yoder on June 16, who admitted performing
certain sex acts with the dog, even going into detail with them,
but denied doing others. He was arrested and booked June 22,
charged with animal cruelty.
An animal-control officer took the dog to Dr. Sondra Brown, a
veterinarian at Northwood Animal Hospital, who could not determine
whether the dog had been sexually abused.
Warren Goodwin, who recently retired after 30 years as an assistant
prosecutor, said he could not recall a similar case in Leon
County.
Annemarie Lucas, a New York-based special investigator for the
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said
sexual contact with animals "probably happens more than it's
actually reported."
Bestiality - illegal in New York state - is "just not a natural
thing," she said. "Animals can't consent ... They're probably
fearful and in physical pain. It's like any kind of abuse.
"It's a cowardly act," added Lucas, who also appears on "Animal
Precinct," a program on the Animal Planet cable-television network.
"It's a domination thing, something an animal would never
instigate."
Stephanie Shain, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United
States, said her organization takes a similar position.
"It's doing something to an animal that they have an inability to
stop," Shain said.
Last year, an Ocala man pleaded no contest to felony animal cruelty
after being charged with having sex with his then-fiancee's female
Rottweiler, according to the Pet-Abuse.com Web site.
A judge withheld adjudication and ordered five years of probation
and a psychological evaluation. He also prohibited the 27-year-old
man from "owning pets of any kind while on probation and from
having unsupervised contact with other people's pets," the site
said.
