The Senate voted today to make it a felony to have sexual contact with an animal, allow minors to operate food stands without a license and match the state’s hemp program to federal law.
Under current Wisconsin law, it’s a class A misdemeanor to commit an act of sexual gratification involving an animal.
SB 139 would repeal that statute and create a new crime of bestiality. It also would define sexual acts to include actions such as permitting sexual contact with an animal to be conducted on the premises a person controls, as well as photographing or filming obscene material depicting a person engaged in sexual contact with an animal.
The bill, which wasn’t taken up by the Senate last session, passed on a voice vote.
The Senate also:
*approved SB 170, which would allow minors to operate a temporary food stand without a permit so long as they sell less than $2,000 a year. The stand couldn’t include food that has to be temperature controlled because it can grow toxic or infectious microorganisms.
Senators approved it on a voice vote.
*SB 188, which would modify the state’s industrial hemp program to match the 2018 federal Farm Bill, which reduced regulations on the industry. It also would clarify that hemp doesn’t include FDA-approved prescription drugs or impact a person’s access to CBD products that are legal. The bill also was tweaked to ensure those who are driving after using legal CBD products aren’t ticketed. Current law also has zero tolerance for the presence of delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, while driving. But the current practice by law enforcement is to file charges at a concentration of one or more nanograms per milliliter of a person’s blood, and the bill would codify that.
The bill cleared 31-2 with GOP Sens. Steve Nass, of Whitewater, and Duey Stroebel, of Saukville, voting no.
