YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -
Warren police say a 16-year-old confessed to having sex with a dog multiple times. Police plan to charge him with four counts of cruelty to animals.

You may remember in June, city council approved legislation making Warren the first city in the state to pass legislation making bestiality illegal.

Ohio remains only one of 11 states left in the country that doesn't have a law against having sex with animals. It's certainly not for a lack of trying but animal advocates say time is running out for legislation that's been pending for nearly two years. 

"I was shocked that we didn't have a bestiality law in Ohio, I said, that can't be right, I know we don't have good laws for our animals, but certainly we've got to have a law for this and much to my dismay, we don't," said Jason Cooke. 

That could change if legislators in Columbus pass Senate Bill 195 which would make bestiality in Ohio a criminal act. The bill was first introduced in January of 2015, but has been stalled in committee.

"It seems like a no brainer to me," said Senate Minority Leader Joe Schiavoni.

"This kind of act should be punished and we can't have this going on in this area and throughout the state, so it's something that needs to happen quickly," said Schiavoni.

Schiavoni doesn't believe the bill would have a hard time passing, but says one of the reasons it could be stuck in committee, is because legislators are uncomfortable talking about it. 

"I mean we're talking about bills that people kind of gasp at or the idea is offensive in so many ways that it's even difficult for legislators to talk about, but we're talking about this kind of criminal act and we should make it criminal, the act and so it doesn't have to be all, it doesn't have to be all difficult to talk about. We're talking about bestiality, we're talking about making it a criminal penalty and we should do it now and so I'll be pushing down in Columbus for this," said Schiavoni. 

A push Jason Cooke says can't come soon enough. 

"It's an unpleasant topic, nobody likes to talk about it. I guarantee the city council members in Warren didn't want to talk about it, but they did, they sat down and they had an educated meeting with their constituents, attorneys and with their law director and they came to the conclusion that if the state of Ohio isn't going to afford us the protection that we need for this type of behavior, then we're gonna act upon ourselves and I really hope that was the flash point to ignite conversations down in Columbus with our legislators to get this legislation passed," said Cooke.

"Let's put this unpleasantness behind us and have a law in place that holds these people accountable," he said. 

If the bill doesn't pass by December 31st, it will die and have to be reintroduced next year. 

Schiavoni says they still have several sessions planned before the end of the year to get it passed.