House moves to pass state bestiality law

INDIANAPOLIS -- Sexual relations with animals would be a crime in Indiana under a bill designed to toughen penalties for animal abuse.\nAn Indiana House committee on Wednesday unanimously approved the bill, which was introduced after a man was charged with stealing a chicken and killing the animal while having sex with it in northwest Indiana.\nLake County Detective Michelle Weaver told lawmakers Wednesday that the measure could protect people as well as animals. Those who have sex with animals are sexual predators who often move from harming animals to harming people, she said.\n"They don't just stick to animals," she said.\nThe provision would create a uniform standard for the state. Some cities and towns outlaw such acts, but the state does not.\n"I think our constituents would be surprised to learn that bestiality is not a crime in state code," said Rep. Eric Koch, R-Bedford.\nThe legislation would make sex with animals a misdemeanor in most cases but a felony if the animal "suffers extreme pain or death."\nThe bill also would make killing an animal with the intent to threaten or terrorize another family member a felony. Weaver said abusers often threaten family pets as a way of showing control.\nShe cited one case in which a the stepfather of an 8-year-old girl pledged to kill the girl's puppy in front of her if she told anyone about abuse in the home.\n"This poor little girl was just crying," Weaver said. "She knew she was going to lose her puppy"