A Michigan State University health physicist has been charged with bestiality for allegedly having sex with a Basset hound.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office approved an arrest warrant for him on Monday on two counts of sodomy for committing a crime against nature (bestiality). He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
The Warrant states that Joseph Hattey, 51, is accused of penetrating the poor pooch with both his penis and his hands, according to officials.
Officials said the alleged sex acts were uncovered during a joint investigation by Ingham County Animal Control and the Ingham County Sheriff’s Office. They went down between Jan. 7 and March 8, according to Hattey’s arrest warrant.
The incidents were not conducted on MSU’s campus or with an animal owned by the university, officials said.

Joseph Hattey, seen [right], with his attorney, Alex Rusek in 55th District Court, June 4, has been charged with two counts of sodomy for committing a crime against nature [bestiality]

The seven-year-old male basset hound was seized from its owner, Hattey, on March 8.
A preliminary hearing, which will determine if there’s enough evidence for Hattey to stand trial, has been set for June 21.

The warrant states that Hattey did commit “the abominable act of sodomy with Flash, a basset hound”

Hattey, a physicist within MSU’s Environmental Health and Safety office, was expected to be arraigned Monday. The dog that he allegedly abused has been removed from harm and placed in the custody of Animal Control.
Hattey has been placed on administrative suspension, pending the outcome of his case.
“The university has been and will continue to cooperate with law enforcement officials on this matter,” MSU spokesperson Emily Guerrant said in a statement, noting how they first learned of the criminal probe back in April.
“MSUPD is providing digital forensic support in the investigation.”
According to his LinkedIn page, Hattey has been working at Michigan State since 2014.
While Guerrant said that Hattey “does not work with students, patients or animals,” the once-respected employee did work in the school’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory— which studies “animal and public health issues” in an attempt to “protect the public by ensuring the health of animals in the state of Michigan and around the nation.”
His arrest on Monday is just the latest sex scandal to rock MSU as the school continues to deal with the fallout from the Larry Nassar and William Strampel cases.
In February, Dr. Nassar was sentenced to 175 years behind bars for sexually abusing his patients.
William Strampel, the former dean, was arrested in March and charged with felony criminal sexual conduct and willful neglect of duty by a public official. Strampl remains in jail pending an arraignment, Ingham County Sheriff Scott Wriggelsworth told The Associated