Index/Organizations/Animal Legal Defense Fund

Animal Legal Defense Fund

American animal law nonprofit

Fact-Checks

13 results
Dec 2, 2025
Most Viewed

Which U.S. states, if any, currently have no explicit felony statute prohibiting bestiality (as of 2025)?

As of reporting in January 2025, animal-law watchdogs and legal trackers report that only West Virginia lacks an explicit state statute banning sexual acts with animals; the Animal Legal Defense Fund ...

Dec 20, 2025
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Which states legalized or decriminalized bestiality through court decisions or legislation since 2010?

No U.S. state has legalized or intentionally decriminalized bestiality since 2010; the legal trajectory over the past decade-and-a-half has been the opposite — a steady patching of statutory gaps so t...

Dec 5, 2025
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Which countries updated animal-sex laws since 2000 and what changes were made?

Since 2000 dozens of jurisdictions have updated laws that criminalize sex with animals or tightened related animal‑welfare statutes. Reporting and legal trackers show major waves: many U.S. states rew...

Dec 2, 2025

Which U.S. states currently do not have explicit bestiality bans as of 2025?

As of reporting in early 2025, advocacy groups tracking state animal-cruelty statutes report West Virginia as the only U.S. state without an explicit statutory ban on sexual acts with animals (bestial...

Jan 12, 2026

Which U.S. states enacted explicit bestiality bans after 2014, and what were the statute texts and dates?

A wave of state actions since 2014 closed many of the previously identified gaps in U.S. law against sexual acts with animals: notable post-2014 enactments and fixes include New Jersey in 2015, Texas ...

Nov 26, 2025

Is sexual activity with animals illegal in my country or state?

U.S. criminal law on sexual activity with animals (commonly called bestiality) is mostly handled by state statutes, not federal law; recent reporting and advocacy note that most states ban it but at l...

Dec 4, 2025

What penalties exist for bestiality in the United States and when did laws change?

Most anti-bestiality criminal law is state-level: by early 2025 nearly every state had some prohibition and penalties range from misdemeanors to felonies with fines, prison terms, and collateral order...

Jan 4, 2026

is sex with horse legal

Sexual activity between a human and a horse is broadly illegal in modern legal systems: in the United States almost every state criminalizes sexual conduct with animals, and internationally many count...

Nov 27, 2025

Are there any U.S. states or countries that still lack explicit laws against bestiality?

Available reporting indicates that nearly every U.S. state now has an explicit statute banning sexual activity with animals, with advocacy groups and legal trackers naming West Virginia as the last st...

Jan 12, 2026

What are the exact statutory texts and effective dates of bestiality laws enacted in New Jersey (2015), Texas (2017), New Mexico (2023), Connecticut (2023), and D.C. (2023)?

Five jurisdictions—New Jersey, Texas, New Mexico, Connecticut and the District of Columbia—moved in recent years to close statutory gaps criminalizing sexual contact with animals; sources in the recor...

Jan 10, 2026

Which U.S. states still lacked explicit bestiality statutes as of 2023 and what legislative changes closed those gaps?

By the end of 2023, the national patchwork that once left several U.S. jurisdictions without explicit criminal statutes against sexual conduct with animals had been largely closed: reporting from the ...

Jan 6, 2026

Is it true that a new California law coming into effect in 2026 requires that all dogs be at least one year old before they can be sold to someone else?

No — nothing in the reporting shows a new California law that outright requires all dogs to be at least one year old before they may be sold; the 2026 package tightens transparency, bans third‑party p...

Dec 14, 2025

What role have public opinion, advocacy groups, or cultural factors played in decriminalizing bestiality?

Public opinion, advocacy groups, and cultural forces have driven nearly every U.S. state to adopt laws banning sexual contact with animals: as of 2023–2025 reporting, every state except West Virginia ...