An Aurora couple are facing four counts of animal cruelty after police alleged they were having sex with their dog in a backyard motor home that had been converted into a sex chamber.

Fredrick Blue Manzanares, 50, and his ex-girlfriend, Janette Eileen Solano, 48, were arrested in March on warrants for four counts of cruelty to animals – neglect/mistreatment, according to their arrest affidavits on file in Arapahoe County District Court. The animal cruelty charge is a misdemeanor.

Police launched their investigation into the sex acts after Solano called the Aurora Police Department in March 2017 to report a domestic violence incident. When an officer met Solano at a gas station, she told him that she and Manzanares had only argued and she was leaving him because he had been pressuring her into having sex with their dog, a Siberian husky mix named Bubba.

Solano told detectives that Manzanares introduced her to bestiality after she discovered pictures on their shared laptop, the affidavit said. She confronted him, and he told her she needed to have an open mind.

“He then spent the next six months introducing her to bestiality videos, bestiality forums, as well as providing her different literature on bestiality,” the affidavit said.

Christopher Decker, the attorney representing Manzanares, was unavailable for comment.

The couple would have sex with Bubba inside the motor home where Manzanares allegedly built a customized bench with red padding to facilitate sex acts with the dog, the affidavit said. He used a dog hormone spray to arouse the dog and would take pictures and videos during the sex acts. Police found videos of Manzanares, Solano and the dog having sex.

But the couple also fought over the dog, the affidavit said. At one point, Solano remarked to police that she was “somewhat jealous” of Manzanares’ relationship with Bubba.

In Colorado, bestiality falls under animal cruelty laws after the legislature added a provision to existing state laws in 2007. Prior to that, it was not illegal to have sex with animals.

Marc Bekoff, a University of Colorado Boulder professor emeritus of ecology and evolutionary biology, said most people would be surprised about the extent of bestiality and the people who commit it.

Sex with animals remains a misdemeanor in the United States because animals are universally seen as property under laws and not sentient beings, said Bekoff, whose most recent book is “Canine Confidential: Why dogs do what they do” and who has written about bestiality for Psychology Today.

While those who practice it don’t believe they are harming the animals, it is abuse, he said.

“They’re serious about their right to have consensual sex with a non-human,” Bekoff said. “It’s animal abuse. It’s a no-brainer.”

Officials could not immediately provide details on Bubba’s whereabouts.