A 37-year-old Orlando man already awaiting trial on child-exploitation charges out of Kissimmee is now facing six new felony counts after investigators say a forensic search of his cellphone turned up illegal images depicting sexual acts involving animals. Wesley Foy Scott Young was booked into the Osceola County Jail this week on the new charges, just weeks before he is set to stand trial on the original case on August 24.
Young's legal troubles trace back to March, when Osceola County deputies took him into custody in Kissimmee after he arrived at an agreed-upon location believing he was meeting a 13-year-old girl, according to the Osceola News Gazette. Investigators posing as the child said Young initiated contact and engaged in inappropriate conversations with the person he believed was a minor. He was charged at the time with traveling to meet a minor for sex, attempted lewd and lascivious battery, unlawful use of a two-way communication device, and harmful communications to a minor.
That March arrest was part of a much larger sweep. The Florida Attorney General's Office says the operation, known as “Catch a Con,” was a four-day, multi-agency initiative led by the Office of Statewide Prosecution and the Osceola County Sheriff's Office that resulted in 16 total arrests of suspected online predators, with federal Homeland Security partners working alongside Orlando and St. Cloud police, according to a statement detailed by the Florida Attorney General's Office. At the time of that arrest, FOX 35 Orlando reported that Young worked as an electrician, had condoms in his possession, and had folded down the rear seats of his car with a blanket laid out to form a makeshift bed.
Phone Search Leads to New Charges
Osceola County investigators conducted a broader investigation into Young earlier this year, and detectives later obtained a search warrant for his cellphone, seizing it, a laptop, and a gaming device as evidence, per the Osceola News Gazette's report. A forensic download of that phone reportedly revealed illegal animal-cruelty files, leading to six new felony counts of possessing explicit images and videos depicting sexual acts involving animals. The sheriff's affidavit does not specify what type of animals were allegedly involved in the images.
Young is currently held on $15,000 bond, and his release conditions include a ban on accessing the internet or social media, as well as a prohibition on owning animals, the outlet's report notes. He remains formally accused and has not been tried on either set of charges; his trial on the original child-exploitation counts is scheduled for later this month.
How Florida Law Treats Animal Sex Crimes
Under Florida Statute § 828.126, engaging in sexual conduct or contact with an animal — or promoting or possessing media depicting sexual acts involving animals — is a criminal offense, according to Leppard Law. The statute defines sexual contact broadly enough to include any contact between a person and an animal's sex organs or anus. Separately, the federal Preventing Animal Cruelty and Torture Act, enacted in 2019, criminalizes severe animal abuse and sexual exploitation as federal felonies punishable by up to seven years in prison, per reporting from WTLV-TV.
State lawmakers have also moved to toughen penalties when animal abuse intersects with cases involving minors. The Florida Senate passed Senate Bill CS/SB 676 earlier this year, creating enhanced third-degree felony charges for committing animal cruelty or bestiality in the presence of, or to entice, a minor, along with mandatory court-ordered psychological evaluations for offenders. That law takes effect October 1.
A Documented Local Pattern
A Florida House of Representatives Criminal Justice staff analysis has cited criminological research showing that people who abuse animals are three times more likely to commit other violent offenses, pointing to a documented overlap between animal sexual abuse and sexual violence against humans. That overlap has shown up repeatedly in Osceola County this year: Hoodline previously reported that a 50-year-old Kissimmee man was arrested in June on 16 counts of child pornography possession and 14 counts of animal sex act images after a similar digital forensic review of devices seized under a cybertip warrant.
The Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office, which prosecutes cases in Orange and Osceola counties, joined a regional Animal Cruelty Task Force in February 2024 to streamline evidence collection between prosecutors and law enforcement, according to the Fifth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office. Central Florida has seen a steady stream of animal cruelty enforcement this year, including an August arrest of an Orlando man accused of strangling a small dog on video and a March arrest of a Kissimmee man accused of dumping an injured dog into a dumpster.
Young's case remains pending, with the animal-cruelty charges layered onto a child-exploitation prosecution that began with the March sting operation. He is due in court later this month on the original charges, while the new felony counts stemming from the phone search work their way through the system.
