Bestiality

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A baker's dozen on sex
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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.

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[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

Having a cuddle. Hey, you're not conerned that the goat is naked, right?

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

[edit] Footnotes

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