Appeals court upholds Virginia’s ban on bestiality

RICHMOND, Va. – The Virginia Court of Appeals has upheld a state law banning sex with an animal.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports the court on Tuesday affirmed the 2017 conviction of Arthur Anderson Warren, who used his cellphone to record video of encounters he had with a woman and her dog.

A search warrant was obtained after Warren asked a deputy if “bestiality-type stuff” was legal and described the videos.

Warren’s appeal cited the U.S. Supreme Court’s Lawrence v. Texas decision against that state’s law criminalizing same-sex sodomy in arguing that the images showed the constitutionally protected “private sexual conduct of consenting individuals.” But the judges ruled that the dog was not a consenting adult, and Virginia has a legitimate interest in preventing cruelty to animals.

___

Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch, http://www.richmond.com