© 2025 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Petting a shark is not a crime in Iowa. This bill was aiming to change that

A bill that would make it a crime to let people pet sharks has been tabled in the Iowa Legislature. It’s a response to a shark bite that happened in Iowa last year.

A small shark bit an employee at a for-profit zoo in West Des Moines, and the shark had to be killed to get the shark’s teeth out of the employee’s hand. A lobbyist for the Humane Society says the zoo still allows people to pet that same kind of shark.

Rep. Ray Sorensen, R-Greenfield, sponsored the bill.

“It doesn’t shut this place down. It just shuts down them having people pet a damn shark. I mean, I hate to say it’s a common sense bill, but for me, it’s a common sense bill. We shouldn’t be petting sharks.”

Rep. John Wills, R-Spirit Lake, says he doesn’t like legislation that just affects one business in the state, and he declined to advance the bill.