**** Upcoming Hearing ****
Monday, February 29, 2016
The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee will hold a hearing on
- HB 1547-FN – prohibiting beastiality.
When: 1 p.m. Where: Room 204, the Legislative Office Building.
HB 1547-FN – prohibiting beastiality.
STATUS: The House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee will hold a hearing on 2/29/16 at 1 p.m.
DOGS POSITION: Oppose as written
DOGS does NOT support bestiality. Nowhere in this bill is bestiality defined as as sexual contact between an animal and a human.
Rather this bill prohibits: “Offering or accepting the offer of an animal for consideration with the intent that it be subject to sexual contact or sexual penetration.” This overbroad definition would prohibit the offering at stud any dogs, cats, cows, horses, etc. As written, it would criminalize all breeding of animals unless it was done for commercial purposes. It would prohibit the offering for sale a heifer to be used for by a family to provide milk for themselves.
The bill allows exemptions for the following:
- “Accepted medical veterinary procedures performed by a licensed veterinarian or veterinarian technician.”
- “Insemination of animals by the same species, bred for commercial”
- “Accepted animal husbandry practices that provide necessary care for animals bred for commercial purposes”
No animal owners, whether a breeder or not, would be able to provide to provide such home veterinary care as might be recommended for the treatment of a simple vaginal infection or sheath infection in a male.
Additionally, by only allowing insemination of animals by the same species, this bill would ban the breeding of mules and Beefalos. Mules are the product of a male donkey and a female horse – two different species with different numbers of chromosomes while Beefalo is the result of breeding cattle (Bos taurus) and American Buffalo (Bison bison).
Please email the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee with your concerns.
