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Chapter 6.10 Zoophilia
The animal rights debate has not attracted careful or heated discussion on zoophilia as it has on other animal rights issues. It has been called “a delicate subject and one of the last taboos” that raises the question of consent and animal dignity, loving partnerships and sadistic violence. (1) Regardless of the large amount of zoophilia pornography on the Web, facts and figures on zoophilia are few; sex with animals is a largely concealed activity with little research on the subject and still disdained by many researchers. (2) However, one celebrated speculative guess put the number of people involved in sexual activity with animals at eight percent of men and four percent of women. However, opinions vary wildly and some people like to make out that over half the population have indulged in some form of zoophilia, if only in fantasy.
An old name for zoophilia is bestiality. An alternative modern name is zoosexuality.
Zoophiles are people with a sexual orientation for animals and zoophilia is about having sex with animals. Possibly the most popular beast partners are dogs, horses, cows and sheep, probably because of their prevalence and relatively submissive behaviour as domesticated animals. Zoophilia is from the Greek zoon - animal, and philia - lover.Illustrations from early history depicting sexual acts with animals indicate that some societies accepted bestiality at least to some degree. Possibly many people today would view zoophilia as abhorrent and see zoophiles as sick or sexually impaired. Until recently zoophilia was widely considered a mental disorder and in some places it still is. The legality of zoophilia varies widely around the globe. Sex with animals is illegal in some countries. In most states of the US it is a felony and bestial acts in Britain can carry a jail sentence of up to two years. But in some countries there is no specific legislation against it. Most people would surely agree that it is immoral for self-interested sexual gratification to cause an animal distress or pain, impair a young animal's development, or coerce an animal into unwilling acts. However, zoophiles might claim that they only have loving relationships with their partners, ensure their animals’ well-being, and that zoosexuality is not very different from human-human relationships. Even so, animals in a just world should have much the same animal rights of protection as do children against anyone who is an abusive manipulative sexual predator. There may be a connection of some zoophiles with violence and sex offending on humans, as there is a link with animal abusers who graduate to abusing humans. (3) To understand this situation we need openness and research on the issue. References (1) Beetz A M and Podberscek A L (eds) (2005): Bestiality and Zoophilia: sexual relations with animals. Purdue University Press, Indiana. (2) Miletski H (2002): Understanding Bestiality and Zoophilia. East-West Publishing. Maryland. (3) Bolliger G and Goetschel A F in Beetz and Podberscek. ›› To Entries & Home |
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