Wednesday, April 20, 2016
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A Boardman man is working with an attorney to propose a city ordinance for Warren and other area communities to make it illegal to have sex with animals. A Warren prosecutor says he doesn’t know any reason why Ohio shouldn’t have a statewide beastiality law, but prosecuting for cruelty to animals has been successful in Ohio in the past.
By Ed Runyan
WARREN
A Boardman man and Cleveland-area attorney are proposing an ordinance Warren and other communities can approve to outlaw sex with animals while they also work toward approval of a new statewide law.
Animal advocate Jason Cooke of Boardman and Atty. Dana Marie K. Pannella of Sharon Center, Ohio, are offering local communities a model ordinance they can approve to outlaw such activity, known as bestiality.
Cooke also plans to address the issue with members of Warren City Council at council’s caucus meeting at 5 p.m. next Wednesday.
Warren has become a focal point because of charges filed this month against Salvador Rendon, 61, accusing him of having sex repeatedly with two boxer dogs at his home on Ward Avenue Northwest.
Rendon pleaded no contest Tuesday in Warren Municipal Court to one count of animal cruelty and was sentenced to 12 more days in the county jail. He already has served 18 for a total of 30.
A family member reported the conduct to Warren police. The dogs belonged to his daughter, who lived with him.
Judge Thomas Gysegem also ordered Rendon to have no contact with animals during the five years of his probation. The judge said Rendon must receive mental-health counseling, and the judge will review the results of that counseling periodically, he said.
“I do not want to let go of this case for a multitude of reasons,” Judge Gysegem said at Tuesday’s hearing. “What occurred here was despicable and highly disturbing for many reasons.” Judge Gysegem will review the conditions of Rendon’s probation at a May 31 hearing, and “will not hestitate to impose more terms of your probation” if warranted, he told Rendon.
The judge noted he could still impose another 60 days of jail time if Rendon fails to abide by the terms of his probation.
“The facts of this case cause me great distress,” the judge said.
Assistant Warren Prosecutor Gil Blair, in an interview apart from the Rendon hearing, said because Ohio is one of 11 states with no bestiality law, prosecutors had no choice but to charge him with animal cruelty. To get a conviction, Blair had to prove that at least one of the dogs was in pain or sustained an injury, he said.
“I think in most people’s minds, there’s no reason why there isn’t a bestiality law,” Blair said.
State Sen. Jim Hughes of Columbus, a Republican, has proposed a state bestiality law twice, the most recent time in January. At that time, a member of the criminal justice committee, Sen. John Eklund, a Republican from Chardon, told The Columbus Dispatch he had the following concerns about S.B. 195: “We need to be ever careful that we’re not criminalizing mental illness.”
S.B. 195 is stalled in the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, Panella said.
According to the Veterinary Information Network website, bestiality used to be outlawed in most states through sodomy laws, but most of those laws were repealed since the 1950s. In many states, specific bestiality laws were written but not in Ohio and 11 other states.
Cooke said the benefit of the model bestiality ordinance Panella has written is that it would make bestiality a first-degree misdemeanor instead of a second-degree misdemeanor in the case of animal cruelty and bestiality under S.B. 195.
The model ordinance also would prohibit someone from ever again owning an animal.
If Rendon were to be convicted of animal cruelty, Warren Municipal Court Judge Gysegem would be able to order that Rendon have no contact with animals for the maximum length of probation – five years, Blair said.
Panella’s model legislation urges Ohio cities and villages to make use of their “home rule” powers to pass the bestiality ordinance. Some townships, including Boardman, also have home-rule powers, as do Summit and Cuyahoga counties, Panella said.
If Warren were to approve a bestiality ordinance, it would be the first community in Ohio with one, Cooke said.
If cities such as Warren would approve a bestiality ordinance, it might encourage state lawmakers to also aprove a statewide law, he said.