A Hobart, Indiana, man with a lengthy history of sexually abusing animals has reportedly asked a federal court for chemical castration as a condition of his release, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The unorthodox request came from Michael Bessigano, 46, who has been jailed since January for consciously receiving “obscene matters from an interactive computer service.” This week, the repeat offender offered to begin using the drug Depo-Lupron, which would decrease his testosterone levels, to get out of prison early.

Bessigano’s attorney, Jennifer Soble, claims her client was motivated by sexual desire, not animal abuse. Soble maintains that supervised hormone treatment and time served provides better rehabilitation than additional prison time.

“To the extent that Mr. Bessigano has accidentally injured or killed animals during the course of his sexual exploits, that harm is no greater than that imposed by meat-eaters and leather-wearers nationwide,” the attorney opined.

In July, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine associate professor Fred Berlin determined that Bessigano, with medical treatment and supervision, could exist in society “without continuing to pose an unacceptable level of risk to animals,” the newspaper reported.

Court papers indicate that Bessigano’s animal abuse history goes back to the early 1990s. The Indiana man has grabbed national headlines for his numerous arrests.

In 2014, The Times of Munster reported Bessigano was arrested for sexually abusing a guinea fowl in 2014. Killing the animal in the process, he allegedly attempted to hide its carcass in a trash can. Authorities are said to have recovered feathers from the fowl in the man’s home and took him into custody.

The Indiana man also faced charges in 2001 for reportedly sexually abusing and killing a chicken in a hotel room. WMAQ noted that Bessigano was criminally charged in 2011 for violating his parole by receiving images depicting bestiality.

[Featured Image: Lake County Sheriff’s Department]