Ohio Just Used Bestiality to Fight a Higher Minimum Wage

It is currently legal to have sex with an animal in nine states, but it seems Ohio may want off that list. The Guardian reports Ohio's state legislature passed a bill this week that would outlaw bestiality and the selling of animals for sex. Gov. John Kasich has 10 days to sign or veto the bill. “The passage of animal sexual abuse legislation is a great victory for the animals of Ohio,” says a policy director at the Humane Society, which campaigned for the bill. The senators who sponsored the bill argued that sexually abusing animals can be a stepping stone to sexually abusing children.

But of course it's not as simple as making it illegal to have sex with animals. WHIO reports the bill originally sought to stop local governments from regulating large-scale dog breeders, meaning animal-rights groups opposed it. Then Republican legislators added a section to the bill to stop cities like Cleveland and Cincinnati from raising the minimum wage, according to the New York Daily News. Now the bill was now also unpopular with workers' rights groups. To make the controversial bill more palatable, Republican legislators then added the anti-bestiality legislation. And that's how 40 legislators, mostly Democrats, ended up voting against making it illegal to screw animals while the state made it easier to keep screwing workers. (More bestiality stories.)