Two Whatcom County men accused of sexually abusing a miniature horse were arrested this week to face felony charges of animal cruelty.

Robert Edward Carr, 42, and Seth Emmet Haynes, 19, both admitted to having sex with a brown miniature mare named Thistle in a field near Bellingham in summer 2013, according to the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff’s deputies started investigating last month when Haynes’ roommate, a Ferndale woman, and her caregiver, Christina Hayden, 46, found searches for bestiality pornography in her computer’s history. Haynes did not own a computer, but he had access to his roommate’s laptop, Hayden told a reporter.

Hayden said Haynes, a former Lynden High School student, often made comments that alarmed her, about how he enjoyed oral sex with animals more than oral sex with people. He also openly made references to going off to have sex with horses and dogs, she said. On the laptop, Hayden said, she found he had viewed videos of men and women having sex with animals. Hayden reported her findings to police.

Detectives interviewed Haynes and tried to determine if any sexual abuse of animals happened in Whatcom County. Haynes, they learned, had been in a sexual relationship with Carr, a horse owner. Haynes told police that in August 2013, Carr suggested they have sex with a mare that belonged to Carr’s parents, said Whatcom County Undersheriff Jeff Parks.

Haynes also admitted to having sex with dogs three times in Eastern Washington, Parks said. Those cases, however, are being investigated outside the jurisdiction of the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office, so Parks declined to comment further.

Sheriff’s deputies contacted Carr on Oct. 1. He reported that he got to know Haynes through a local 4-H Club, where he had been a leader and Haynes was a student, according to the sheriff’s office. He corroborated the story about both men having sex with the mare, Parks said.

Carr told the detective he had sex with horses on other occasions. Five or six specific instances are documented in the police report, Parks said.

Divorce papers show Carr owned a number of horses as of three years ago: Hanky Panky, a mini gelding; Toby the Tramp and Sundance LB Caught Ya Looking, both Shetland geldings; Scarlet Rose, This’ll Be The One, Fire, Wishes, and Right On Q, all miniature horses; and others.

The Whatcom Humane Society seized animals from Carr this month, though an exact count wasn’t available Friday, Oct. 9.

Superior Court Commissioner Martha Gross set bail at $5,000 for both men on Friday, when both men they made their first brief appearances in a jail courtroom.

Neither man has a felony history. They face three counts each of animal cruelty in the first degree.

Sex with animals has been a class C felony in Washington since 2006, following public outcry over a notorious case in Enumclaw, where a man died from internal injuries after having sex with a stallion.

Several animal cruelty cases involving human-animal sex have been prosecuted in Whatcom County in recent years.

Douglas Bryan Spink was sentenced to three months in jail in December 2014, and banned from owning dogs in Washington, for letting a British tourist, Stephen Clarke, have sex with his mastiffs at a cabin near Sumas.

Another man, Gary Allen Veldhuizen, of Lynden, served 20 days in jail for having sex with a goat in 2010.