The measure passed unanimously in the Senate criminal justice committee but never got any further. The House never heard it.

Rich, talking with me in the final weeks of the session, acknowledged the bill was dead but promised she would bring it back next year. Although it tackles a difficult subject some would rather ignore, Rich said she thought the proposal had solid support. “It just got started too late,” she said.

Rich first got interested in the issue when an animal welfare group from the Panhandle approached her. Their town had just been through a brutal case, where a man was accused of assaulting a family’s pregnant pet goat and then murdering her. But prosecutors had to settle for a misdemeanor trespassing charge because there was no law regarding the sex crime.

The reason: When the state years ago struck down laws that had made sodomy illegal, the ones regarding sex with animals went, too.

The animal rights group also pointed Rich, a long-time children’s advocate, to research that showed people who sexually abused animals often did the same thing to children. “We have heard of so many cases, it kind of makes you ill,” she said.

Hats off to Rich as well for, in her bill draft, calling this act what it is: sexual abuse and assault. “Bestiality” is a term more likely to draw sniggers, suggestions of sheep in garter belts or frat parties with porn movies. A human being sexually forcing him or herself on a creature that can’t consent or can’t even protest is an act of violence and cruelty. It’s rape and it’s wrong.

If you have any doubt, click here and look at some of the cases on Pet-Abuse.com, which logs all types of animal abuse cases. Bring a strong stomach. Puppies, dogs, horses, cats and goats all have been victimized.

This Jack Russell terrier was sexually assaulted and injured, the insides of his ears deliberately burned with a caustic chemical, and then dropped off anonymously at a Phoenix-area animal shelter last year.

Other animals were tortured or mutilated. Some had their paws and muzzles bound with duct tape so they couldn’t struggle, or were tied to a tree so they couldn’t escape. Many of them died from their injuries.

It’s 292 days until the beginning of the regular 2009 legislative session. And it’s still legal to sexually assault animals in Florida. Send an e-mail to Nan Rich by going here, and tell her you support her efforts on the behalf of these silent victims. Then tell your own elected legislators the same thing.