By Keller
I just watched the last half a documentary called “Animal Passions”, a program on zoophilia, and thought I’d write up some thoughts since the program was, I feel, very well made, if exceptionally controversial.
Firstly, it’s best to clarify that this program interviewed real people who openly displayed their identity, many of which told stories ranging from the exceptionally repulsive to the heart-wrenching (yes, really). Also, zoophilia was the topic in question not bestiality; the latter being purely about sex with the former supposedly being a “sexuality”, i.e. a relationship and emotional bond between man and animal that was not voluntarily chosen.
The majority of the tales held me in morbid enthrall. I felt many of the people interviewed turned to animals due to actual physical and sexual abuse in early childhood, convenience, and an inability to relate to humans whilst having always shared, from early childhood, a close bond to animals. For some, their attraction was a gradual conscious event which they instigated, for others they were “taken by surprise” by their pet and found themselves enjoying it. For others it was an overriding desire with no reasonable explanation that ended up causing massive emotional damage when denied. One man’s whole life fell apart because of his attraction to ponies, even though there was no explanation for such attraction (he was married with kids he adored, had never been abused, beaten, or subjected to animal pornography, nor had he even grown up with ponies/horses). He was the one person on the show who gave me pause, particularly when he told of the first time he told his pony “cherry” how much he loved her (seriously, don’t laugh; it was intensely moving both because of his genuine feeling and because I wondered how a man could end up so broken as he talked about something which leaves many others cold).
I’m not going to go into whether such behaviour is right or wrong because frankly the answer doesn’t seem so black and white. On the one hand you can argue that most animals, dogs in particular, have been bred for docility and/or a constant state of adolescence and so could never fully “consent”, on t’other many of these animals repeatedly instigate the sexual acts with their human partners and can be quite aggressive about getting what they want.
What has struck me, however, is how the majority of those animals which zoophiles seem to go for are the most convenient ones, and by convenient I mean they are easy to obtain and relatively easy to have sexual intercourse with. The main animals tend to be horses, dogs, goats, pigs, other livestock, and a number of other animals with genitalia which can be penetrated by a human male easily or which can penetrate a human female without causing lasting damage.
I don’t think this should be overlooked whilst zoophiles claim they are truly in love with their animal, because such an issue is far too suspect. I have never heard of zoophiles who are overwhelming drawn to domestic cats (and why not? they’re beautiful and a popular pet in many countries) or other small animals but due to the limitations involved, in this case size restrictions, simply pine away for their ‘loves’ instead of simply finding a more suitable animal, which is what the majority seem to do.
If people want to claim that zoophilia is a sexuality and that they can no more deny their attraction to a certain animal species than a heterosexual can deny their attraction to the opposite sex, then why is it that zoophiles conveniently only fall in love with those animals they can fuck? Or why do they settle for those animals which they can have intercourse with if they love a species they can’t engage with?
It’s highly suspect.
It’s also pretty clear when watching this program and reading about zoos that many of them got into such practices for the convenience of having a warm body around that fucks indiscriminately, and/or due to some pretty hefty emotional issues in regards to relationships (of all kinds) which they’d rather avoid than ever have to face. In many ways, I feel the majority of zoos are lying to themselves when they claim their ‘lifestyle’ is a sexuality, and should instead be getting some therapy and relationship counselling instead of taking the easier route of turning to their pets for all things like they have learned to do. Similarly, I feel if zoos seriously believe zoophilia will one day be considered a fourth sexuality, they are kidding themselves. It seems to me that when one swallows the initial disgust and investigates further, zoophiles tend to have a whole lot more problems than just having sexual relationships with animals.