Bestiality laws in New Mexico make any sexual contact between a person and an animal a felony. Since Senate Bill 215 took effect in 2023, the Animal Sexual Abuse Act at Section 30-9A-3 of the state statutes treats the base offense as a fourth-degree felony punishable by eighteen months in prison, with a third-degree felony and three years when a child is involved. A conviction also brings mandatory sex offender registration, seizure of the person’s animals, and a court-ordered ban on owning or working with animals for three to fifteen years after release.
What the Act Prohibits
The statute creates three separate offenses. Bestiality is the base crime: sexual contact between a person and an animal. Section 30-9A-2 defines that contact to include inserting human genitals or mouth into an animal’s body, inserting an animal’s genitals or mouth into a human’s body, inserting any object into an animal’s genitals or anus, and handling or stimulating an animal’s genitals or anus.1New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-2 – Definitions The law carves out legitimate veterinary care, standard animal husbandry and grooming, artificial insemination for breeding, and conformation judging.
Promoting bestiality reaches people who facilitate the act without necessarily performing it. That includes pressuring, encouraging, or manipulating someone else into committing bestiality, and acquiring or transferring an animal with the intent that it be used for the crime.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties
Aggravated bestiality is the most serious version. It applies when someone commits bestiality or promotes bestiality either in the presence of a child or with a child as a participant.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties
Prison Sentences
Every offense under the Act is a felony. There is no misdemeanor tier, even for a first conviction.
- Bestiality is a fourth-degree felony with a basic prison sentence of eighteen months.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties3New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 31-18-15 – Sentencing Authority
- Promoting bestiality is also a fourth-degree felony with the same eighteen-month basic sentence.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties
- Aggravated bestiality is a third-degree felony with a basic prison sentence of three years.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties3New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 31-18-15 – Sentencing Authority
A judge can adjust these basic sentences up or down based on aggravating or mitigating circumstances under New Mexico’s general sentencing framework.
Sex Offender Registration
A conviction for bestiality, promoting bestiality, or aggravated bestiality requires sex offender registration in New Mexico. Senate Bill 215 amended the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act to classify offenses under Section 30-9A-3 as sex offenses, which pulls a convicted person into the state registry with all its reporting duties.4New Mexico Legislature. Senate Bill 215
Animal Seizure and Ownership Ban
Two consequences are automatic on any conviction under the Act. The sentencing judge has no discretion to skip them.
Every animal under the convicted person’s care is seized and turned over to the New Mexico Livestock Board, a government-operated animal control agency, or a designated animal welfare organization. That agency decides what happens next, but the animals cannot be returned to the convicted person.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties
The court must also bar the convicted person from owning, living with, or having control over any animal for a period between three and fifteen years. The ban covers working with animals in any capacity, paid or unpaid. Time in prison does not count toward the ban; the clock starts after release.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties
Evaluation, Counseling, and Restitution
On top of the mandatory penalties, the court may order a psychological assessment. If the evaluation identifies a need for treatment, the judge can require the convicted person to attend counseling.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties This is discretionary rather than automatic, but it commonly appears when probation or parole conditions are on the table.
The court can also order restitution for veterinary care, boarding, food, and other reasonable expenses caused by the crime.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties If an animal needed emergency surgery or months of shelter care after seizure, those costs can be billed back to the defendant.
Coercion and Manipulation Defense
The Act includes one explicit defense. A person cannot be convicted if the sexual contact resulted from coercion or manipulation by someone else.2New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-3 – Bestiality; Aggravated Bestiality; Penalties Coercion, as defined in the statute, means threats, physical force, or violence. Manipulation means persuasion, extortion, retaliation, or deceit.1New Mexico Statutes. New Mexico Code 30-9A-2 – Definitions The provision recognizes that a trafficking or abuse victim forced into the act should not face criminal liability for conduct that was not voluntary.