A door-to-door meat salesman from Maine faces assault charges after a potential customer in New Hampshire rejected his offer of chicken in exchange for sex. This incident highlights the varied and sometimes unusual intersections of sex and poultry, from legal solicitations to bestiality cases.
Assault Charges Follow Rejected Offer
Ryan Park, 22, of Waterboro, Maine, is accused of assaulting a woman in Stoddard, New Hampshire, last month. According to reports, Park, a door-to-door meat salesman, offered the woman chicken in exchange for sex. After she declined his offer, Park allegedly grabbed her and forcefully kissed her. He has been charged with assault and is scheduled to appear in Keene District Court on June 28.
Legal Ramifications of Sex and Poultry
While the New Hampshire incident involves alleged assault, other cases have seen legal consequences tied to poultry in different contexts. In Painesville, Ohio, Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti ordered three men who pleaded guilty to soliciting sex to wear a bright yellow chicken costume. Daniel Chapdelaine, 40, of Perry Township; Martin Soto, 44, of Ashtabula; and Fabian Rodriguez-Ramirez, 29, of Painesville, had solicited sex from an undercover Painesville police officer. Judge Cicconetti agreed to suspend a 30-day jail sentence if the men wore the costume between 4 and 7 p.m. on a Friday outside the court, carrying a sign that read "No Chicken Ranch in Painesville." The sign and costume referenced the "World Famous Chicken Ranch," a legal prostitution house in Nevada. Judge Cicconetti has previously used barnyard animals in his sentencing, including ordering a man who called a policeman a pig to stand next to a live pig in a pen with a sign, and sentencing a couple who stole a Baby Jesus statue to dress as Mary and Joseph and walk with a donkey.
Bestiality Cases Involving Birds
The concept of sexual activity involving birds, known as avisodomy, has a long history, with ancient laws differentiating between species and assigning lower penance for sex with fowl due to their lower replacement cost compared to farm animals. However, eating the bird after such an act was frowned upon and could result in two or three years of fasting. Birds involved in such acts were often slaughtered or even put on animal trial, with cases of animals going to court for bestiality between the 9th and 17th centuries, facing death sentences if found guilty, as was the fate of two turtledoves in the 1600s.
In modern times, Michael Bessigano, 42, an Indiana man, has a documented history of bestiality involving birds and other animals. In 2002, Bessigano was sentenced to four years in prison for having sex with and killing a chicken. Police reported that he took the chicken to a hotel room, plucked its feathers, sexually abused it, and then killed it. In 2017, Bessigano was arrested again on felony charges of bestiality and killing a domestic animal. He was accused of entering a building at a local park where guinea fowls were housed, sexually assaulting one of the birds, killing it, and attempting to hide the carcass in a trash barrel. Witnesses identified Bessigano to police. Authorities executing a search warrant at his residence found bird feathers, which DNA testing matched to the bird found dead in the Buckley Homestead trash barrel. Police also found Bessigano wearing blue jeans covered in blood, which an analysis by the Indiana State Police Laboratory determined belonged to an undetermined species of animal. At his residence, an altar of candles and a rubber wolf mask were allegedly found.
Bessigano's history of animal cruelty and bestiality extends further. In 1992, he was convicted of having sex with and killing a Rottweiler, serving two years. In 1991, he was arrested after being found in a chicken coop with dead birds and a second time for breaking a rooster's neck. He was also found in a neighbor's goose pen attempting to molest birds, pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge and paying a $500 fine. In 1993, he was found guilty of breaking into a barn, stealing a Rottweiler, and killing it by breaking its neck, serving two years in prison. One month after his release, he was arrested for attempting to steal a German Shepherd. In 2017, Bessigano, then 46, requested a federal judge to release him from prison if he underwent chemical castration, proposing therapy and monthly injections of Lupron-Depot, a testosterone-reducing drug. His attorney, Jennifer Soble, argued in a court filing that any harm to animals during his sexual exploits was "no greater than that imposed by meat-eaters and leather-wearers nationwide." Bessigano had been a federal inmate since January 2017 for violating probation from a 2009 obscenity conviction by looking at materials on the internet.
Key Facts
- Ryan Park, 22, of Waterboro, Maine, is accused of assault in Stoddard, New Hampshire, after a potential customer rejected his offer of chicken for sex.
- Painesville Municipal Judge Michael Cicconetti ordered three men convicted of soliciting sex to wear a chicken costume and carry a sign outside court.
- Michael Bessigano, 42, an Indiana man, was arrested on felony charges of bestiality and killing a domestic animal after allegedly sexually assaulting and killing a guinea fowl.
- Bessigano has a prior conviction from 2002 for having sex with and killing a chicken, for which he served four years in prison.
- In 2017, Bessigano, then 46, requested release from prison if he underwent chemical castration, proposing therapy and monthly injections of a testosterone-reducing drug.
- Historically, avisodomy, or sexual activity involving birds, was deemed less offensive than bestiality with mammals in some ancient laws, carrying a lower penance.
