''People are taking these animals as their husbands? What's husbandry?''

Debate over a Florida bill to outlaw bestiality—it's one of 16 states that don't forbid the practice—produced this extraordinary and unintentionally hilarious exchange:

[State Sen. Nan] Rich's legislation would target only those who derived or helped others derive ''sexual gratification'' from an animal, specifying that conventional dog-judging contests and animal-husbandry practices are permissible.

That last provision tripped up Miami Democratic Sen. Larcenia Bullard.

''People are taking these animals as their husbands? What's husbandry?'' she asked. Some senators stifled their laughter as Sen. Charlie Dean, an Inverness Republican, explained that husbandry is raising and caring for animals. Bullard didn't get it.

''So that maybe was the reason the lady was so upset about that monkey?'' Bullard asked, referring to a Connecticut case where a woman's suburban chimpanzee went mad and was shot.

Whole thing here.

Via Walter Olson's indispensable Overlawyered.com, where he comments, "'Larcenia' is probably the most perfect first name for a politician I've ever heard."