Warren council gives first reading to bestiality law

WARREN — City council gave first reading to legislation outlawing bestiality today after a Boardman man provided the city with a model bestiality ordinance recently and urged the city to approve it.

Bestiality — sex with animals — is legal in Ohio and 10 other states, but after a local case involving a Warren man charged with cruelty to animals for having sex with two dogs, Jason Cooke of Boardman hired an attorney to write a model ordinance for Warren and other municipalities to consider adopting.

Councilman John Brown said the law department made relatively few changes to the proposed ordinance. It will be discussed in committee later this month and probably will get three readings before it comes to council for a final vote.