Warren committee recommending passage of state’s first bestiality ordinance

By Ed Runyan

runyan@vindy.com

WARREN

Even raising the issue of bestiality makes people uncomfortable.

But because a Warren man pleaded guilty recently to doing it after his wife reported it to police, it’s an issue Warren must confront, Law Director Greg Hicks said at a Warren City Council committee meeting Tuesday.

“There is no empirical data to say how often it occurs,” Hicks said. “But one time is too many.”

“Obviously something needs to be in place,” Hicks said of an ordinance now being considered by Warren City Council.

The ordinance received a first reading earlier this month, and the health and welfare committee Tuesday recommended it for passage. Passage could happen at a council meeting next month after it gets two more readings.

Hicks’ remarks about the frequency of bestiality came after Councilwoman Helen Rucker asked how common it is. “In all my years, this is the first time I’ve heard of it,” Rucker said of a Warren man recently convicted of animal cruelty for having sex with his daughter’s dog.

Hicks said passing a law against bestiality would make it easier for Warren prosecutors to do what they do in cases that call into question a person’s mental health – get them an evaluation.

And like sex offenses against people, a “rape kit” that helps investigators collect bodily fluids for analysis by a laboratory could be helpful in proving bestiality, Hicks said.

Councilwoman Cheryl Saffold asked Hicks whether some of the language in the ordinance could be softened. Some people are “repulsed” by some of the sexual language in it, she said.

Hicks said that kind of specificity is needed to improve the chances that the city’s ordinance would not conflict with the statewide bestiality law if it were to be approved.

Warren would be the first city in Ohio to have a bestiality ordinance. But sex with animals already is illegal in 39 states outside of Ohio.

Barbara Busko, former longtime president of the Animal Welfare League of Trumbull County, said she believes Warren’s ordinance would educate people that sex with animals is not a joke.

“This is cruel,” she said. “This will create a real awareness. I would love to see Warren in the forefront.”