This appears to be a genuine item from the BBC. Which means that there is fair chance that it might be true.

A Sudanese man has been forced to take a goat as his "wife", after he was caught having sex with the animal.

The goat's owner, Mr Alifi, said he surprised the man with his goat and took him to a council of elders.

They ordered the man, Mr Tombe, to pay a dowry of 15,000 Sudanese dinars ($50) to Mr Alifi.

"We have given him the goat, and as far as we know they are still together," Mr Alifi said.

Mr. Alifi reportedly called local authorities in Upper Nile State.

"They said I should not take him to the police, but rather let him pay a dowry for my goat because he used it as his wife," Mr Alifi told the newspaper [Juba Post].

It is entirely unclear whether the authorities in question were civil authorities or relgious authorities, and if the latter, whether they were Islamic religious authorities.

One more reason to celebrate diversity.

Hat tip: Richard Baehr

Thomas Lifson   9 20 06

Update: Bookworm adds:

Over at Cheat—Seeking Missiles (where Laer caught this story last week), there is a sort of related follow—up about a man who was fired for mentioning that the Koran has been interpreted to authorize both pedophilia and bestiality.  Since my email hyperlink isn't working, this is the link for Laer's most recent post on the subject.

Also, here are two links I found which seem to give credible quotes from the Koran, related old Islamic texts, and the Ayatollah Khomeini, all of which support bestiality and pedophilia.

In the modern Islamic world, Khomeini especially seemed taken with expanding on the limited Koranic references to these unusual and abusive sexual practices.

With regard to the former, I'm sure that very, very few Muslims follow those teachings (although they make a weirdly bizarre sense for people living in isolated herding communities), but I suspect the latter rules, re pedophilia, are honored in many parts of the globe.

One last word on bestiality.  One can't read all this without thinking of famed Princeton "ethicist" Peter Singer, whose writings on Animal Rights gave birth to PETA.  He's also the one who thinks parents should have the right to kill defective newborns, something which has eraned the wrath of disabled rights groups.  A little known footnote is that Singer is also at odds with some PETA—philes.  He wrote an article saying that bestiality was ethically okay.  The PETA—vists went crazy, claiming he was advocating rape, since a cow cannot give her consent.  It gets crazy at the fringes!