HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) — A man whose animal cruelty conviction led Indiana legislators to pass a law making sexual relations with animals a crime has been sentenced to two years and nine months in federal prison for downloading images and videos involving sex and animals.

U.S. District Judge Philip Simon agreed on Tuesday to recommend that Michael Bessigano, 38, of Hobart be sent to a federal prison in Massachusetts that specializes in mental health treatment. Simon said he hopes Bessigano can end the "merry-go-round of incarceration" for bestiality crimes.

"I've been trying," Bessigano told Simon. "Nobody wants to help me."

Bessigano also faces three years of supervised release after his prison sentence, a term at the low end of federal guidelines. The judge two weeks ago threw out a plea agreement that called for Bessigano to serve two years in prison, stating that Bessigano's history did not make him eligible for a below-guidelines sentence.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bernard Van Wormer said the sentence was appropriate for Bessigano, who served time prison for killing a neighbor's dog in 1993 and was jailed again in 2001 for having sex with a chicken in a motel room and killing it.

Bessigano could not be charged with bestiality because there was no state law against it at the time, but he served more than four years in prison for an animal cruelty conviction.