Bestiality
| Part of the series on |
| A baker's dozen on sex |
Bestiality is the activity of having sex with animals, [1] (which is not to be confused with "dogging"[2] unless you hang out in some really tolerant car parks). The legal status of bestiality varies depending on the country. It is legal in Belgium, Cambodia, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, Sweden, and Thailand and illegal in most other countries.
Zoophilia is sexual attraction to animals.
Contents |
[edit] Come here doggie woggie...
Bestiality is generally considered inappropriate, since an animal cannot give informed consent to the act. Animal breeders frequently see to it that a female animal breeds with a male humans have chosen for her even if she would rather not, which is not illegal. If, however, the "animal" in question is an adult human in a dress-up outfit, while people won't "understand", they also won't prosecute.
The issue of consent is in no way complicated by the fact that many people who oppose bestiality may also eat meat, although animals cannot give informed consent to be raised for food, killed, butchered, and roasted or sauteed, and eaten with potatoes au gratin or some fava beans and a nice Chianti. Yum! Some societies consider it poor form to cook a sexual partner.
[edit] Possible consent
Practitioners of bestiality will specifically split the activities into two distinct and frank categories: fucking, and being fucked. In the former, consent of the animal cannot be verified, although some may react nonchalantly to the act. However, in the second, it is claimed the animal is completely consenting, as you can't really force a dog to get it up and "give it some" if it'd rather chew a ball, run off or lick its own nuts in preference.[3] While it's hard to fault this logic and undisputed that practitioners can love their animals, there is no legal distinction between the two acts.
[edit] In the media
In 2005, a man who had sex with a horse died after his colon was ruptured as a result.[4] This incident became the basis for Robinson Devor's 2007 documentary film Zoo.[5]
[edit] False analogies
Bestiality was erroneously linked to homosexuality by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia in his dissent to Lawrence v. Texas, where (in an effort to show that homosexuality should be legislated against) he made the slippery slope argument that if homosexuality (specifically, sodomy) is allowed, bestiality will be next. He failed to note that bestiality was effectively legal in Texas at the time he wrote his dissent.[6] Incredibly, bestiality is still not illegal in several states of the USA, with others having only passed laws against it in recent years.[7]
[edit] See also
- Actions which demand the death penalty in the Old Testament
- Animal rights
- Furry fandom
- Gerbiling
- Goat
- Humanzee
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Of course humans are animals but the term refers to sex with non-human animals.
- ↑ http://www.swingingheaven.co.uk/dogging/
- ↑ Bizarre Magazine - Animal Sex
- ↑ http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002382718_horse15m.html
- ↑ Wikipedia: Zoo (film)
- ↑ Map of the Day: Bestiality-Friendly States, Mother Jones, Mac McLelland. May 19, 2010
- ↑ "Alaska and Florida consider bans on bestiality", Yahoo News, 21st March 2009.