Don't read this, guys

Any of my readers who have recently eaten may want to avoid reading this story. Especially if you're male.

Three men accused of operating what police described as a sadomasochistic "dungeon" that included castrations have been sentenced to jail time. Richard Peter "Master Rick" Sciara, his partner of 20 years Michael Mendez, and the man they called their slave, Danny Carroll Reeves, pleaded guilty to felony castration and maiming. Superior Court Judge Dennis Winner said it was difficult to call the dungeon's willing patients "victims," but he said six castrations performed there were certainly a crime.

"I think this is a type of perversion that cannot be tolerated by society," Winner said during a sentencing hearing Thursday.

Hey, Judge Winner, that sounds a tad judgemental.

I actually read a stomach-churning article a few years ago in a Bay Area (yeah, shocking, I know) alt-weekly about this subculture of men who, for various reasons, either abuse their balls or want to be castrated outright. Some of them said that they were disgusted by or ashamed of their sexual desires and felt that castration would let them live a life free of sexual urges. Others just hated the feeling of having testicles between their legs and wanted to get the old snippety-snip. Others still were just sadomasochistic freaks. I'd be willing to bet that the "victims" here contained a mix of at least a few of these elements.

In plea bargains, Sciara, 62, was sentenced to a year in prison, though he has served all but two weeks of that time. Reeves, 50, was sentenced to eight months in prison, and Mendez, 61, received four months. Reeves and Mendez have already served their sentences and will enter four and two months of house arrest, respectively, and three years of supervised probation.

In exchange for the pleas, the state dropped charges of misdemeanor practicing medicine without a license and conspiracy.

I guess it's not like the people they castrated were abducted and then tortured. They got what they wanted. But I'm still surprised that the sentences were so light since what they were doing was pretty damn dangerous. And nasty, too, though I guess there's no law against being nasty.

For the ladies: Feeling left out by this tale of male anatomical unpleasantness? Well, Dave's girlfriend, the Nurse told him a tale of post-natal horrors that will probably give you the same kind of heebie-jeebies that the story of the illegal nutectomies gave us fellas.