Reported by USA Today
Back in July we reported a horse-and-buggery story involving a South Carolina man caught on video having sex with a mare named Sugar and then held at gunpoint by her owner when he returned for another stable tryst.

Today, Rodell Vereen, 50, was sentenced to three years in prison for pleading guilty to buggery with 21-year-old Sugar for the second time in two years. He was also ordered to stay away from the horse’s stable and to get mental help when he’s paroled.

“I’m sorry about what I’ve done. I didn’t mean to do it. It’s my fault. I’m sorry for what I’ve done to myself,” Vereen said during the hearing at the Horry County courthouse.

Sugar’s owner has had enough.

“I’ve been through hell for the last year and it’s caused a lot of hardship,” Barbara Kenley told the Myrtle Beach Sun News. “There’s a lot of ridicule and jokes going around about this thing. And a person can only take so much.”

Why is this case important? Personally I do not believe that cross-species consent is possible however as my friend Erin stated so well, “it’s not like the government is a huge champion for the animals. so this has nothing to do with protecting non-human animals from rape, and more to do with protecting heteronormativity.” My friend David looked into the laws in South Carolina and found this link to South Carolina’s current laws on sodomy/buggery. It is a scary thing when a man feels that he has to plead guilty to something like buggery. Behind this conviction lie the fundamentals of heteronormative ideas of sexuality and also a possible attempt of equating cross-species sexual acts with same-sex human sexuality. On top of all this is the question of support for Rodell Vereen. What is going on with him that he feels the need to sexually assault a horse? How do we as a culture respond to this without utilizing the prison industrial complex? Who is going to support this man while he is locked up? The prison system is a violent place, imagine what it will be like for the man convicted of having sex with a horse. What does compassion look like here? Certainly supporting Rodell Vereen is not exactly a popular thing to do but as queer folks struggling against the pervasiveness of the prison industrial complex we must see how our liberation is wrapped up with Rodell Vereen’s.

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