Editing History of zoophilia (section)

==French Revolution and legal reform==
From at least the 13th century and until the French Revolution, French criminal law had theoretically punished bestiality with death (burning at the stake), although in practice law courts only occasionally meted out that penalty. When the revolutionary politicians of the National Constituent Assembly set out to remake French government and society, their reforms included new criminal laws liberalizing sexual activities, inspired by ideas of the 18th-century Enlightenment. In 1791, Louis-Michel Le Peletier de Saint-Fargeau presented a newly drafted penal code to the National Constituent Assembly. He explained that it outlawed only "true crimes" and not "phoney offenses, created by superstition, feudalism, the tax system, and [royal] despotism." Zoophilia was not mentioned in the new Penal Code (promulgated September 26-October 6, 1791) and thus decriminalized it.<ref name="Napoleonic Code">[http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/napoleonic_code.html Napoleonic Code ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140910195256/http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/napoleonic_code.html |date=2014-09-10 }}</ref><ref name="Sexual Relations with Animals">[https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-GbOvrbniQC&dq=Russia+law+zoophilia&pg=PT9 Bestiality and Zoophilia: Sexual Relations with Animals ]</ref>