PUSH TO MAKE BEASTIALITY A FELONY AFTER A MAN WAS CAUGHT HAVING SEX WITH 3 DOGS & A HORSE!

Activists are pushing Ohio lawmakers to make bestiality a felony in the wake of allegations a Shelby man had sex with three pet dogs, and possibly a horse.

Peter Bower was charged in May with two counts of animal cruelty, authorities said.



Police say a search of his home turned up photos of him having sex with animals, as well as stories he posted online about his perverted acts.

Authorities also discovered a book about bestiality, "Dearest Pet," along with a plastic, blowup sheep, KAIT 8 News reported.

Despite the severity of what they found, police could only charge the 31-year-old with the two misdemeanors.

Ohio does not have any laws specifically dealing with bestiality, something one resident hopes to change.

"If this had been a child, there would have been an uproar about it," Joyce Fields told the Mansfield News Journal. "There isn't much difference because this pet didn't accept or consent to what he was doing. That makes it wrong."

Field started a petition along with a local animal advocacy group, Hands4Paws, to push for legislation outlawing bestiality.

The petition, which has several hundred signatures, also demands that anyone convicted for having sexual contact with an animal should be barred from owning pets.

"I think Ohio is behind the game on this issue," said Richland County Dog Warden Dave Jordan. "I'm glad this has come to light and that a negative situation could have a positive result -- that's my hope with this case."

There are some efforts already underway to address the issue of bestiality in Ohio.

"We're in the process of doing some research and drafting the legislation," state Rep. Jay Goyal told the Mansfield News Journal. "We're taking a look at what other states have done and then going from there."

Only 30 states have animal cruelty laws that include bestiality, the Animal Legal & Historical Center says. Of those, only 16 consider it a felony. The others, which include New York, list it as a misdemeanor.



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