The Enumclaw horse sex case was a series of incidents in 2005 involving Kenneth D. Pinyan,[2][3] an engineer who worked for Boeing and resided in Gig Harbor, Washington; James Michael Tait, a truck driver; Douglas Spink; and other unidentified men.
[4][5] After engaging in this activity on multiple occasions over an unknown span of time, Pinyan received fatal internal injuries in one such incident.
[6][7] Pinyan's death rapidly prompted the enactment of a bill by the Washington State Legislature that prohibits both zoophilia and the videotaping of such an act.
[9][10] In Washington state, a law was repealed on July 1, 1976, that had said: Every person who shall carnally know in any manner any animal or bird, or who shall carnally know any male or female person by the anus or with the mouth or tongue; or who shall voluntarily submit to such knowledge; or who shall attempt sexual intercourse with a dead body, shall be guilty of sodomy...An effect of the repeal was that bestiality became legal in the state of Washington.
[12] Pinyan had been building a new house and a barn that he planned to keep a horse in, along the Key Peninsula Highway in Gig Harbor, Washington.
In the early 2000s, he found a group of men online, nicknamed "zoos", who began meeting at a farm in an unincorporated area of King County, Washington, for communal weekends.
[13][14] The incident that killed Pinyan occurred at a 40-acre (16 ha) farm located in an unincorporated area in King County, Washington,[15][16] 5 miles (8.0 km) northwest of the city of Enumclaw.
Either Pinyan or the unidentified man recorded Tait being anally penetrated by a stallion the men had referred to as "Big Dick".
[15] According to the Medical Examiner's Office, Pinyan, 45, "died of acute peritonitis due to perforation of the colon",[15] and the death was ruled accidental.
The police tracked down the rural Enumclaw-area farm, which was known in zoophile chat rooms as a destination for people wanting to have sex with livestock, and seized 100 VHS tapes and DVDs amounting to hundreds of hours of video of men engaging in bestiality.
As there was no law against humanely fucking a horse, the prosecutors could only charge Tait with trespassing.The prosecutor's office says no animal cruelty charges were filed because there was no evidence of injury to the horses.Jennifer Sullivan, a Seattle Times staff reporter, said that originally the King County Sheriff's Department did not expect the local newspapers to report on the event because of its gruesome nature.
[23] Judge David Christie gave him a suspended one-year sentence, a $300 fine, one day of community service, and ordered Tait never to visit the farm again.
[29] A documentary of the life and death of Pinyan, and the lives led by those who came to the farm near Enumclaw, debuted at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival under the title Zoo.
[32][33] Some time after the events in Washington, James Michael Tait moved to Maury County, Tennessee, onto a farm owned by a man named Kenny Thomason housing horses, pigs, goats and dogs.