Bill Passes Making Bestiality Illegal In Louisiana
LOUISIANA (CBSDFW.COM/AP) - State lawmakers in Louisiana passed a bill making it illegal for a human to have sex with an animal, according to KATC- TV.
The bill now heads to the House, but 10 state senators voted against it.
Specifically, the bill makes sexual abuse of an animal a crime and sets penalties for those convicted.
It would also require that sexually abused animals are removed from their abusers and delivered to a veterinarian for treatment. If convicted of the crime, a person would not be allowed to own any animals in the future.
Ahead of Louisiana, the Texas House already approved expanded state penal codes prohibiting bestiality.
Lawmakers voted 122-6 last year to pass a bill by Houston Republican Sen. Joan Huffman banning the "sexual assault of an animal."
Final House approval came shortly after and the Texas Senate had already passed the bipartisan measure.
Texas already bans bestiality. But the bill made it a separate penal code crime, defining 10 categories of offenses. Those include "contact between" peoples' mouths or genitals and an animal's genitals or mouth.
It further banned possessing, selling or purchasing animals for bestiality.
The bill made those offenses state felonies.
Cases involving children, or where an animal is injured or killed, could be second-degree felonies, punishable by 20 years maximum behind bars.