EU Cannot Punish Someone for Raping an Animal, Commission Says
by Peter Caddle
The European Union does not have the power to implement laws punishing someone for raping an animal, the Commission has said.
A member of the European Commission has said that the EU has no powers to punish people for raping animals, saying that the controls for such legislation lie solely in the hands of member states.
The statement was made in response to a question from one member of the European Parliament, who criticised recent laws passed by the Spanish government which they said made it “ambiguous” whether beastiality was fully illegal in the country, before asking the commission whether the EU had a view and if they could step in.
In an answer published on Friday, Health and Food Safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides responded that, while the EU does not approve of sexually abusing animals, the body largely had no control over the issue, with the ability to legislate on the matter of raping animals being left in the hands of individual EU nation-states.