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

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.

In Virginia, bestiality is listed as a Class 6 felony punishable of up to 5 years in prison.

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

was not a consenting adult, and Virginia has a legitimate interest in preventing cruelty to animals.