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This article covers the '''historical and cultural aspects of [[zoophilia]]''' (also known as '''bestiality'''), from prehistory onwards.
{{Short description|none}} <!-- This short description is INTENTIONALLY "none" - please see WP:SDNONE before you consider changing it! -->
{{unreliable sources|date=May 2021}}
The '''history of [[zoophilia]]''' and '''bestiality''' begins in the prehistoric era, where depictions of humans and non-human animals in a sexual context appear infrequently in European rock art.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bahn|first=Paul G.|title=The Cambridge illustrated history of prehistoric art|year=1998|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=978-0-521-45473-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xwm_D1u_UTsC&pg=PA188|accessdate=18 February 2012|page=188}}</ref> Bestiality remained a theme in mythology and folklore through the classical period and into the Middle Ages (e.g. the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan)<ref name="HSE" /> and several ancient authors purported to document it as a regular, accepted practice—albeit usually in "other" cultures.


__TOC__
Explicit legal prohibition of human sexual contact with other animals is a legacy of the Abrahamic religions:<ref name="HSE" /> the Hebrew Bible imposes the death penalty on both the person and animal involved in an act of bestiality.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{bibleverse||Leviticus|20:15|131}}</ref> There are several examples known from medieval Europe of people and animals executed for committing bestiality. With the Age of Enlightenment, bestiality was subsumed with other sexual "crimes against nature" into civil [[sodomy]] laws, usually remaining a capital crime.


==Overview==
Bestiality remains illegal in most countries. Arguments used to justify this include: it is against religion, it is a "crime against nature," and that non-human animals cannot give consent and that sex with animals is inherently abusive.<ref>Regan, Tom. ''Animal Rights, Human Wrongs''. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, pp. 63-4, 89.</ref> In common with many [[paraphilia]]s, the internet has provided a connective platform for the [[Zoophilia#Zoophile community|zoophile community]], which has lobbied for the recognition of zoophilia (or zoosexuality as an alternative sexuality), and advocated for the legalisation of bestiality.<ref>{{cite news|last=Francis|first=Thomas|title=Those Who Practice Bestiality Say They're Part of the Next Sexual Rights Movement|url=http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2009-08-20/news/those-who-practice-bestiality-say-they-re-part-of-the-next-gay-rights-movement/|accessdate=18 February 2012|newspaper=Broward Palm Beach New Times|date=20 August 2009|archive-date=15 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215053508/http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2009-08-20/news/those-who-practice-bestiality-say-they-re-part-of-the-next-gay-rights-movement/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Prior to and outside the influence of the major [[Abrahamic religion]]s (Judaism, Christianity and [[Islam]]), [[zoophilia|sex with animals]] (also known as zoophilia, or bestiality) was sometimes forbidden, and sometimes accepted. Occasionally it was incorporated into religious ritual.{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}} The Abrahamic religions by and large forbid it, and declared it a sin against their God,<ref>[[Leviticus]] 18:23 and 20:15-16.</ref> and during the [[Middle Ages]] in Europe people and animals were often [[Execution (legal)|executed]] if found guilty. With the [[Age of Enlightenment]], bestiality became subsumed into [[sodomy]] and a civil rather than religious offence.


Separately, Western cultures have at times reacted to other negatively-viewed sexual and lifestyle activities, with [[moral panic]].<ref>For example, the Rev. Jerry Falwell speaking on "The Early Show" (CBS, 2004) was one of many American community and political leaders who justified a stance that [[gay marriage]] was unthinkable, by arguing that if gay marriage became approved, it could lead to legally sanctioned incest or bestiality. ''[http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gay_marriage/articles/2004/02/14/coverage_boosts_states_liberal_image/ Boston Globe]''</ref>
==Prehistory==
Depictions of human sexual activity with animals appear infrequently in prehistoric art. Possibly the oldest depiction, and the only known example from the Palaeolithic (prior to the domestication of animals), is found in the Vale do Côa in Portugal. It shows a man with an exaggerated, erect penis juxtaposed with a goat. However, there is some doubt that the two figures are contemporary; while the goat is depicted in characteristic palaeolithic style, the scene may have been altered in a later period with the insertion of the human figure.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Angulo Cuesta |first1=J. |last2=García Diez |first2=M. |title=Diversity and meaning of Palaeolithic phallic male representations in Western Europe |journal=Actas Urol Esp |year=2006 |volume=30 |issue=3 |pages=254–267 |url=http://www.actasurologicas.info/v30/n03/ENG/3003OR02.htm |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120726163724/http://www.actasurologicas.info/v30/n03/ENG/3003OR02.htm |archivedate=2012-07-26 }}</ref>


Since the 1980s, many alternative sexualities have formed social networks, and zoosexuality (a more modern name for zoophilia) is no exception to this. Although society in general is hostile, several decades of research seem to form a consensus that bestiality is commonly misunderstood and mistaken for [[zoosadism]].   Most notably, [[utilitarianism|utilitarian]] philosophers such as [[Peter Singer]] and [[Jacob M. Appel]] have argued that, under certain circumstances, such behavior should be legal.<ref>[http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/opinion-three-reasons-society-shouldn-t-rush-to-condemn-bestiality Arguments for Legalised Bestiality]</ref>
From the Neolithic onwards, images of zoophilia are slightly more common. Examples are found at ''Coren del Valento'', a cave in Val Camonica, Italy, containing rock art dating from 10,000 BCE to as late as the Middle Ages, one depicting a man penetrating a horse,<ref>{{cite journal|last=Anati |first=E. |title=The Way of Life Recorded in the Rock Art of Valcamonica |journal=Adoranten |year=2008 |issue=2008 |url=http://www.ssfpa.se/pdf/2008/anati_adorant08.pdf |publisher=Scandinavian Society for Prehistoric Art |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819050756/http://www.ssfpa.se/pdf/2008/anati_adorant08.pdf |archivedate=2010-08-19 }}</ref> and [[Sagaholm]], a Bronze Age cairn in Sweden where several petroglyphs have been found with similar scenes.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sagaholm |url=http://home.online.no/~wen-mja/ontherocks/sagaholm.htm |work=On the rocks |accessdate=18 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907011750/http://home.online.no/~wen-mja/ontherocks/sagaholm.htm |archivedate=7 September 2011 }}</ref>


Although there may be indications of slow changes in cultural attitudes over recent decades, bestiality is still often considered a crime against nature and remains illegal in many countries, and for that reason it is not much evidenced other than [[online]], in private, and in the context of prosecution.
==Classical antiquity==
[[File:Da michelangelo, leda e il cigno, post 1530 (national gallery) 01.jpg|thumb|right|''[[Leda and the Swan (Michelangelo)|Leda and the Swan]]'', copy of lost [[Michelangelo]]]]
Several Greek myths include the God Zeus seducing or abducting favoured mortals while in the form of an animal: Europa and the bull, Ganymede and the eagle, and Leda and the Swan.<ref name="HSE">{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Cornog |first1=M. |last2=Perper |first2=T. |year=1994 |title=Bestiality |editor1-last=Haeberle |editor1-first=E. J. |editor2-last=Bullough |editor2-first=B. L. |editor3-last=Bullough |display-editors=3 |editor4-last=B. |encyclopedia=Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia |publisher=Garland |location=New York & London |url=http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/CH06.HTM#b3-BESTIALITY |accessdate=18 February 2012 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204033652/http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/CH06.HTM#b3-BESTIALITY |archivedate=4 February 2012 }}</ref> Only the latter legend includes actual copulation between Leda and Zeus in his animal form, but depictions of this act, fairly uncommon in antiquity, became a popular motif in classicising Renaissance art, contributing to a lasting prominence in Western culture.<ref>{{cite book|last=Bull|first=M.|title=The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods|year=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=0-19-521923-6|url=https://archive.org/details/mirrorofgods00bull}}</ref>
[[File:Zoophilia.jpg|thumb|right|Zoophilia carving on Rock with Old Kannada script engraved at [[Kedareshvara Temple, Balligavi]]]]


==Zoophilia through history==
Various classical writers recorded that bestiality was common in other cultures. Herodotus was followed by Pindar, Strabo and Plutarch{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}} in alleging that Egyptian women engaged in sexual relations with goats for religious and magical purposes – the animal aspects of Egyptian deities being particularly alien to the Greco-Roman world.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ray|first=J. D.|title=The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion|year=2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-515401-6|editor=Redford, D. B.|page=90|chapter=Animal Cults}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Leavitt|first=J.|title=Greek and Egyptian Mythologies|year=1992|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, IL|isbn=978-0-226-06454-3|editor=Bonnefoy, Y.|page=[https://archive.org/details/greekegyptianmyt00bonn/page/248 248]|chapter=The Cults of Isis among the Greeks and in the Roman Empire|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/greekegyptianmyt00bonn/page/248}}</ref> Conversely, Plutarch and Virgil make similar accusations of the Greeks.
===Ancient, Greek and Roman===
''[[Caveat]] - It is important to be aware that some of the descriptions in antiquity may have been written from a [[political agenda]] or [[bias]], that is, with the intent of portraying a given target group intentionally negatively. Reader judgement is necessary when considering such source material.''
{{See also|Leda and the Swan}}
[[Image:Leda.jpg|thumb|right|Leda and the Swan]]
* A open-air rock engraving ([http://www.archaeometry.org/images/sxc6.jpg photograph]) probably 5000 years old in the Northern Italian [[Val Camonica]]<ref>Located at "Coren del Valento" in Val Camonica. Raymond Christinger contributed, at the 1st Valcamonica Symposium, that this scene might display a socially reprehensible sexual intercourse remaining the privilege of the chief of the tribe. [http://www.archaeometry.org/sxx.htm Link to web page and photograph, archaeometry.org]</ref> "It depicts a man complete with full [[erection]] standing behind a donkey. The viewer is left in no doubt that he intends to have sex with the donkey. Other people think that one cannot say if our prehistoric artist depicts himself, or something which he has observed someone else doing. What we can deduce however is that he has an intimate knowledge of the external sexual organs of this animal, and that it was made before any known taboos against sex with animals existed."<ref>Cited to "Dr. Jacobus X.", said to be a [[nom-de-plume]] for a French author: Abuses Aberrations and Crimes of the Genital Sense, 1901.</ref>
* The [[Hittite laws]] criminalised bestiality, with the death penalty as the punishment.<ref name="PeakeAdEx2219">''[[Peake's commentary on the Bible]]'', Revised Edition (1962), ad {{bibleverse||Exodus|22:19|}}</ref> That is, except for sexual intercourse with horses<ref name="PeakeAdEx2219" />
* The [[Sagaholm]] is a [[Sweden|Swedish]] [[Tumulus|barrow]] with zoosexual carvings that dates to the early [[Nordic Bronze Age]].<ref name="The petroglyphs of Sagaholm">[http://home.online.no/~wen-mja/ontherocks/sagaholm.htm The petroglyphs of Sagaholm], The petroglyphs of Sagaholm.</ref>
* Instances of zoosexual behavior have been found in the Bible.<ref name="aggrawal_2009_16_3">{{cite journal |author=Aggrawal, Anil. |title=References to the paraphilias and sexual crimes in the Bible |journal=J Forensic Leg Med |volume=16 |issue=3 |pages=109–14 |year=2009 |month=April |pmid=19239958 |doi=10.1016/j.jflm.2008.07.006 |url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B8CY1-4TRHCD9-1&_user=5081486&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_acct=C000047720&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=5081486&md5=ccfb8545a50236e6819a0666ba569db2}}</ref>
* In ancient [[Egypt]], the animal aspects of the gods ensured that bestiality would be practiced both for religious and magical purposes.  [[Herodotus]] states religious bestiality was practiced in Egypt - the most famous example being of course the copulations of women with goats.  [[Voltaire]] spoke of sexual relations between Egyptian women and sacred goats, citing [[Plutarch]] and [[Pindar]] as his sources ([[Strabo]] and Plutarch both confirm Herodotus' mention [Bk 2, § 46] of an Egyptian woman having public sex with a goat). The scholar and anthropologist Lang states that the Egyptian women submitted to he-goats while the "men committed the sin of impurity with she-goats." (See: [[Baphomet#Goat_of_Mendes|Goat of Mendes]]). At [[El Yemen]], trained baboons were popular sex partners with men and women alike.  Similarly, in the [[Nile]] and [[Indus]] Valleys, monkeys were instructed in the art of manipulating the genitals of both sexes.  It is recorded that dog-faced baboons once fornicated with women "throughout Egypt and the length and breadth of the Arab world".
* In ancient Greece, [[Xenophon]] records sex with goats. Norman Haire (Hymen) states "since the Greek myths contain many stories of gods who assumed the shape of animals in order to mate with mortals, we may judge that even bestiality was not regarded as revolting."
* Plutarch and Virgil state of Greece, that: "it commits very frequently and in many places great outrages, disorders and scandals against nature, in the matter of this pleasure of love; for there are men who have loved she-goats, sows and mares," (Discourse on the Reason of Beasts, xvii) [[Pliny the Elder|Pliny]] states that [[Semiramis]] prostituted herself to her horse, and [[Venette]] says that "there is nothing more common in Egypt than that young women have intercourse with bucks."
* Robson, in "Bestiality and bestial rape in Greek myth" (1997) suggests three points of departure for analyzing Greek myth: 1) sex with animals as pornography, 2) as part of hunting ritual, and 3) as bestial myths and/or male initiation rituals.
* [[Martial]] and other writers state that in [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] times, women sometimes inserted snakes into their vaginas. Curiously, this is reported to have been  both for sexual purposes and also as a means to keeping cool and deodorizing that part of the body in the heat of summer. [[Lucian]] comments that snakes were taught to suckle on women's [[nipples]]. [[Satires of Juvenal|Juvenal]] states in the [[Mysteries of the Bona Dea]], that "if... men are wanting, she [the Roman woman] does not delay to submit her buttocks to a young ass placed over her." Roman society had around 12 formal categories of prostitute, the lower of whom performed with animals.
* The Jewish code of law (the [[Talmud]]) found it necessary to proscribe specifically ''women'' from being alone in the company of animals, in order to rule out suspicion (Muth 1969, Christy 1970).
*The [[Synod of Ancyra]] (circa. 313-316 AD), the first gathering of Christian leaders since the end of anti-Christian persecution, dedicated a substantial proportion of the meeting to deciding the position of the church with regard to bestiality. Two of the resulting 25 canons address the act. The sixteenth canon describes the [[penance]] and level of restrictions to be applied to various age-groups for having previously committed bestiality, or continuing to do so. The seventeenth canon prohibits all [[leper]]s from praying inside church if they had committed bestiality (or had sexual intercourse with a leprous woman) while they suffered from leprosy.<ref>[http://www.synaxis.org/canon/ECF37THE_COUNCIL_OF_ANCYRA_HISTORICAL.htm]</ref>


===Europe: Middle Ages===
Despite their place in mythology and literature, actual acts of bestiality were probably as uncommon in antiquity as they are today.<ref name="HSE" /> Roman civil law, however, made no mention of it.<ref>{{cite web|last=Norton|first=R.|title=Of Sodomy and Bestiality|url=http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/1729disn.htm|work=Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook|accessdate=18 February 2012}}</ref> The explicit prohibition of and strict penalties for zoophilia universal in later European legal systems were derived from Jewish and Christian tradition.<ref name="HSE" /> The Hebrew Bible imposes the death penalty on both the human and animal parties involved in an act of bestiality: "if a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal."<ref name="ReferenceA" /> The [[Synod of Ancyra]] in 313–316 discussed the position of the church with regard to bestiality at length and two of the resulting twenty-five canons addressed it: the sixteenth canon described the penance and level of restrictions to be applied to various age groups for committing bestiality; the seventeenth canon prohibited all lepers from praying inside church if they had committed bestiality while they suffered from leprosy.<ref>{{cite web|title=THE COUNCIL OF ANCYRA, HISTORICAL NOTE & CANONS|url=http://www.synaxis.org/canon/ECF37THE_COUNCIL_OF_ANCYRA_HISTORICAL.htm|accessdate=18 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100213214224/http://www.synaxis.org/canon/ECF37THE_COUNCIL_OF_ANCYRA_HISTORICAL.htm|archive-date=13 February 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref>
In the Church-oriented culture of the [[Middle Ages]], zoosexual activity was met with execution, typically burning, and death to the animals involved either the same way or by hanging. Masters comments that:
:"Theologians, bowing to Biblical prohibitions and basing their judgements on the conception of man as a spiritual being and of the animal as a merely carnal one, have regarded the same phenomenon as both a violation of Biblical edicts and a degradation of man, with the result that the act of bestiality has been castigated and [[anathema]]tized [...]"


In 1468, Jean Beisse, accused of bestiality with a cow on one occasion and a goat on another, was first hanged, then burned. The animals involved were also burned. In 1539, Guillaume Garnier, charged with intercourse with a female dog (described as "sodomy"), was ordered strangled after he confessed under [[torture]]. The dog was burned, along with the trial records which were "too horrible and potentially dangerous to be permitted to exist" (Masters). In 1601, [[Claudine de Culam]], a young girl of sixteen, was convicted of copulating with a dog. Both the girl and the dog were first hanged, then strangled, and finally burned. In 1735, Francois Borniche was charged with sexual intercourse with animals.  It was greatly feared that "his infamous debauches may corrupt the young men."  He was imprisoned. There is no record of his release.
Hittite law mandated the death penalty for intercourse with animals, excluding horses and mules (violators were instead barred from the priesthood and from approaching the king).<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/1650nesilim.asp The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650-1500 BCE] Retrieved 24 July 2013</ref>


On the other hand, other accounts are more possibly fictitious, such as [[Pietro Damiani]]'s, who in his "De bono religiosi status et variorum animatium tropologia" (11th Century) tells of a Count Gulielmus whose pet ape became his wife's lover. One day the ape became "mad with jealousy" on seeing the count lying with his wife that it fatally attacked him. Damain claims he was told about this incident by [[Pope Alexander II]] and shown an offspring claimed to be that of the ape and woman. (Illustrated Book of Sexual Records)
==Europe: Middle Ages==
In the Church-oriented culture of the Middle Ages, zoosexual activity was met with execution, typically burning, and death to the animals involved either the same way or by hanging.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} Sects deemed heretical by the Church such as the Hussites were accused of bestiality.<ref name="Out Of Print Marmor 1980 p. ">{{cite book | author=Out Of Print | last2=Marmor | first2=J. | title=Homosexual Behavior | publisher=Basic Books | year=1980 | isbn=978-0-465-03045-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rBkbAAAAYAAJ | access-date=2022-10-16 | page=}}</ref> Masters comments that:
:"Theologians, bowing to Biblical prohibitions and basing their judgements on the conception of man as a spiritual being and of the animal as a merely carnal one, have regarded the same phenomenon as both a violation of Biblical edicts and a degradation of man, with the result that the act of bestiality has been castigated and anathematized [...]"{{citation needed|date=December 2017}}


Clergyman and chronicler [[Gerald of Wales]] claimed to have witnessed a man having intercourse with a horse as part of a [[pagan]] ritual in Ireland.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n12800341 Last Night's Television: Always let a sleeping pagan lie]</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2004/jul/20/television.artsfeatures | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Please, please tell me now | date=July 20, 2004 | accessdate=May 4, 2010 | first=Nancy | last=Banks-Smith}}</ref>
In 1468, Jean Beisse, accused of bestiality with a cow on one occasion and a goat on another, was first hanged, then burned. The animals involved were also burned. In 1539, Guillaume Garnier, charged with intercourse with a female dog (described as "sodomy"), was ordered strangled after he confessed under torture. The dog was burned, along with the trial records which were "too horrible and potentially dangerous to be permitted to exist" (Masters). Other accusations of bestiality in the period include the trials of Thomas Weir<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GQlJj3_koNUC&dq=thomas+weir+bestiality&pg=PA168 | title=The Culture of Controversy: Religious Arguments in Scotland, 1660-1714 | isbn=9781843837299 | last1=Raffe | first1=Alasdair | year=2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EK3tCwAAQBAJ&dq=thomas+weir+bestiality&pg=PA191 | title=Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment: Scotland, 1670-1740 | isbn=9781137313249 | last1=Henderson | first1=Lizanne | date=8 April 2016 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mGMUBAAAQBAJ&dq=%22thomas+weir%22+%22atherton%22&pg=PA271 | title=Incest and Agency in Elizabeth's England | isbn=978-0812203301 | last1=Quilligan | first1=Maureen | date=7 June 2011 }}</ref> and John Atherton.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FT8FO95uMyYC&dq=john+atherton+bestiality&pg=PA215 | title=The Ancient and Modern History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland | isbn=9783954273522 | last1=Marmion | first1=Anthony | date=June 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ncRpEAAAQBAJ&dq=john+atherton+bestiality&pg=PT89 | title=Trial of Translation: An Examination of 1 Corinthians 6:9 in the Vernacular Bibles of the Early Modern Period | isbn=9781725277557 | last1=Wirrig | first1=Adam L. | date=4 April 2022 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oGKJDwAAQBAJ&dq=john+atherton+bestiality&pg=PA357 | title=Sex and the Church in the Long Eighteenth Century: Religion, Enlightenment and the Sexual Revolution | isbn=9781786731579 | last1=Gibson | first1=William | last2=Begiato | first2=Joanne | date=28 February 2017 }}</ref> In 1601, [[Claudine de Culam]], a young girl of sixteen, was convicted of copulating with a dog. Both the girl and the dog were first hanged, and finally burned. In 1735, François Borniche was charged with sexual intercourse with animals. It was greatly feared that "his infamous debauches may corrupt the young men."  He was imprisoned, and there is no record of his release.{{citation needed|date=December 2017}} Historians claim there were more than a thousand executions recorded for bestiality in Sweden throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.<ref name="Österberg 2010 p. 170">{{cite book | last=Österberg | first=E. | title=Friendship and Love, Ethics and Politics: Studies in Mediaeval and Early Modern History | publisher=Central European University Press | series=The Natalie Zemon Davis Annual Lectures Series | year=2010 | isbn=978-615-5211-79-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q_0OEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA170 | access-date=2022-11-30 | page=170}}</ref><ref name="Krogh 2011 p. 59">{{cite book | last=Krogh | first=T. | title=A Lutheran Plague: Murdering to Die in the Eighteenth Century | publisher=Brill | series=Studies in Central European Histories | year=2011 | isbn=978-90-04-22137-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8ccyAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA59 | access-date=2022-11-30 | page=59}}</ref>


Although thousands of female [[witch]]es were accused of having sex with animals, usually said to be the [[Devil]] in animal form or their [[familiars]], court records available in Europe and the United States, dating back to the 14th century and continuing into the 20th century, nearly always show males, rather than females, as the human parties in court cases. (Encyclopedia of human sexuality, Humboldt University)
On the other hand, other accounts are more possibly fictitious, such as Pietro Damiani's, who in his "De bono religiosi status et variorum animatium tropologia" (11th century) tells of a Count Gulielmus whose pet ape became his wife's lover. One day the ape became "mad with jealousy" on seeing the count lying with his wife that it fatally attacked him. Damiani claims he was told about this incident by Pope Alexander II and shown an offspring claimed to be that of the ape and woman. (''Illustrated Book of Sexual Records''){{citation needed|date=December 2017}}


{{See|Demons and animals|Animal trial}}
Clergyman and chronicler Gerald of Wales claimed to have witnessed a man having intercourse with a horse as part of a pagan ritual in Ireland.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n12800341 Last Night's Television: Always let a sleeping pagan lie]</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/jul/20/television.artsfeatures | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Please, please tell me now | date=July 20, 2004 | accessdate=May 4, 2010 | first=Nancy | last=Banks-Smith}}</ref>


===Asia===
Although thousands of female witches were accused of having sex with animals, usually said to be the Devil in animal form or their familiars, court records available in Europe and the United States, dating back to the 14th century and continuing into the 20th century, nearly always show males, rather than females, as the human parties in court cases. (''Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality'', Humboldt University){{citation needed|date=December 2017}}
[[File:Tako to ama retouched.jpg|thumb|230px|right|''[[The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife]]'', an 1820 [[Hokusai]] woodcut, depicts a woman sexually engaged with a pair of [[octopus]]es.]]


* [[Havelock Ellis]] [note 52] states: "Among the [[Tamil people|Tamil]]s of Ceylon <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Sri Lanka]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> bestiality with goats and cows is said to be very prevalent."
==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>
==19th-Century==
In 1835, the Russian Empire criminalized ''skotolozhstvo'' (bestiality) in the country. In 1845, the Russian Empire merged both ''muzhelozhstvo'' (sodomy) and ''skotolozhstvo'' statues together into a single statue prohibiting ''protivoestestvennye poroki'' (vices contrary to nature).<ref name="Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-siècle Russia" /> On August 20, 1848, Norway adopted new penal codes which replaced a 1687 law that implemented the capital punishment by burning for "intercourse which is against nature" (bestiality) and reduced the punishment for engaging in bestiality from capital punishment to a sentence of hard labor of the fifth degree.<ref name="Criminally Queer">{{cite book |last=Rydström |first=Jens  |date=May 31, 2007 |title=Criminally Queer: Homosexuality and Criminal Law in Scandinavia 1842-1999 |isbn=9789052602455 |accessdate=September 9, 2014 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfsUAQAAIAAJ}}</ref>


===Other cultures===
In 1855, the German physician Wilhelm Gollmann claimed that [[sodomy]] was initially committed by shepherds. He adds that shepherds were drawn to this method of pleasure for the "want of more natural opportunities." Gollmann then prejudicially attacks Sicilians, whom he claims commit zoophilia against goats. According to Blumenbach, the females of Guinea commit indecent acts against monkeys. Gollmann finalizes his dubious claims with his assertion that Iranians commit acts against donkeys as a cure for coxalgia.<ref>
* '''Pacific Isles:''' [[Bronisław Malinowski|Malinowski]], a foremost [[Poland|Polish]] anthropologist of the 20th century also cited by Masters, noted that the [[Trobriand Islands|Trobriand Islanders]] (near [[Papua New Guinea]]) have no laws against bestiality (or [[homosexuality]], [[masturbation]], [[exhibitionism]], etc.), but that "offenders are nonetheless subjected to punishment in the form of derision and contempt [such as] 'No one likes a dog better than a woman.' ... Other primitive peoples of modern times have also been observed to disapprove, though only mildly, of such deviant forms of sexual behavior as bestiality and homosexuality - and somewhat like the Trobrianders they express their lack of approval by poking fun at the miscreant rather than by officially condemning and punishing him." He also reports of the same tribe: "a man copulated with a dog, the names of both man and dog were house-hold words in the villages. The culprit, Moniyala, apparently lived down his shame. The subject... must never be mentioned in his presence, for, the natives say, if he heard anyone speaking about it he would commit lo'u [suicide]."
{{cite book
* '''Africa:''' Among the [[Maasai people|Maasai]], it was customary for older boys to have sexual relations with [[she-ass]]es. Young [[Riffian]] boys (a [[Morocco|Morrocan]] tribe) also had sexual liaisons with female asses (Ford and Beach, 1951, pp.&nbsp;147–148). Among the [[Tswana people|Tswana]] of Africa, boys assigned to the care of cattle frequently engaged in zoosexual activity. It was also common in the [[Gusti]] tribes and considered rather harmless, but boys were reprimanded and warned against this activity. The fishermen of the East African coast "from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean" are said to have had regular coitus with female [[dugong]] carcasses.
|first=Wilhelm
* '''Middle East:''' Miner and DeVos (1960) comment that amongst [[Arab]] tribal cultures, "Bestiality with goats, sheep, or camels provides another outlet. These practices are not approved but they are recognized as common among boys." Havelock-Ellis [note 52] states "The Arabs, according to Kocher, chiefly practice bestiality with goats, sheep and mares. The [[Annamite]]s, according to Mondiere, commonly employ sows and (more especially the young women) dogs."
|last=Gollmann
* '''Native Americans:''' Such activity was also common among Native American tribes such as the [[Hopi]] Indians. Voget (1961:p99-100)describes the sexual lives of young Native Americans as "rather inclusive," including bestiality.
|title=Homeopathic Guide to all Diseases Urinary and Sexual Organ
* '''Inuit:''' Ford & Beach mention the [[Copper Inuit]] (''[[eskimo]]es''), an offshoot of the [[Thule people]] who used to live on the [[Coppermine River]] and [[Coronation Gulf]] coast. These people apparently had "no aversion to intercourse with live or dead animals". [[Knud Rasmussen]] has recorded a myth of one [[Inuit]] tribe: "There was once a woman who would not have a husband. Her family let dogs copulate with her. They took her out to an island, where the dogs then made her pregnant. After that she gave birth to white men. Before that there had been no white men."
|publisher=Rademacher & Sheek
|others=[[Charles Julius Hempel]]
|year=1854
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1PjgLvjto-kC&q=%22sodomy+was+originally+practiced+by+shepherds%22&pg=PA202}}</ref>


===c.1700 - 1950===
In 1852, the Austrian Empire enacted § 130 which criminalized bestiality with a maximum of five years in prison. About fifty people were convicted annually due to the law.<ref name="an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation" /> In 1861, the Offences against the Person Act 1861 lowered the criminal penalty of buggery in the United Kingdom from the death penalty to life in prison.<ref name="Sexual Relations with Animals" /> On February 10, 1866, Denmark (including Greenland and Faroes) adopted new penal codes which replaced a 1683 law that implemented the death penalty at the stake by means of royal pardon for "intercourse against nature" (bestiality) and reduced the punishment for engaging in bestiality from capital punishment to a sentence of hard labor ranging from about eight months to six years, which was further reduced with about one third if the penalty was served in solitude.<ref name="Criminally Queer" /> On June 25, 1869, Iceland adopted a new penal code that replaced a 13th-century law mandating death by burning for "intercourse which is against nature" (bestiality) to a punishment of work in a house of correction.<ref name="Criminally Queer" />
The Age of Enlightenment took much that had been under the field of religion, and brought it under the field of science. As with [[homosexuality]] a variety of mixed views resulted which persisted through until around 1950, when researchers such as [[Kinsey]] followed by [[R.E.L. Masters|Masters]] began researching zoophilia on its own terms.


The view of this era might broadly be described as objectified. Sciences such as anthropology and study of the psyche were in their infancy, and classical belief, categorization, and the subject-object viewpoint of study had not yet been upset by 20th century thinkers. Subjects were often studied by ''describing'' the objects of study in detail, and ''categorizing'' them into hierarchies and families. Such categories and viewpoints were often subjectively based upon writers' impressions, rather than being as objective as their authors imagined them to be (this issue impacted other fields of human study too). Zoosexuality was no longer for the most part punished by religious execution;  rather, like homosexuality, it was broadly treated as a sickness or deficiency in a person, or analysed as a behavior of a social class of person. Some early researchers made the intellectual leap of considering it as a sexual variation rather than a deficiency, but these were a minority. Psychology had not yet emerged as a field in its own right, so psychological fields were subsumed within [[Medicine]], and zoosexuality was documented by scientists as a medical phenomenon associated with more primitive or lower class people and races. Those who were neither were assumed to be examples of rare perversion or degeneracy. The clinical viewpoint by the early 20th century was oriented around early psychology's concept of non-sexual acts as symbolic or substitutional, after [[Freud]]. Both human and animal behavior (including sexuality) were seen psychologically through the twin light of [[behaviorism]] ([[John B. Watson|John Watson]]'s influential view that science should reject the use of introspection in favor of [[stimulus-response]] as an explanation, and that the understanding of the conscious mind was not a valid goal of experimental psychology)<ref>"In choosing behavior as the basic datum, behaviorists changed the ultimate research goal of experimental psychology from the scientific understanding of conscious experience to the scientific understanding of behavior. Behaviorists argued that explanations that include mental causes are unscientific, and argued that all behaviors — including complex actions that generally are attributed to mental causes — may be viewed as automatic (mechanistic) responses to environmental events (stimuli). By 1920, the behaviorist argument had succeeded in transforming experimental psychology into the scientific study of the environmental causes of behavior." [http://www.sc.maricopa.edu/sbscience/psy101/readings/Section_1/1-5.html Scottsdale Community College course description (abridged)]</ref> and [[determinism]] (the view that there was no such thing as free-will in behavior).
On May 15, 1871, the German Empire enacted Paragraph 175 into the “Reichs-Criminal Code” (RStGB) which outlawed zoophilia and punished it by imprisonment.<ref name="an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation" /><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=44lheqlq-jYC&dq=May+15%2C+1871+Paragraph+175&pg=PA70 Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall]</ref> In 1878, the penal code of the Kingdom of Hungary criminalized bestiality with a maximum of one year in prison.<ref name="Sexual Relations with Animals" /> Sweden, in 1864, and Grand Duchy of Finland, on December 19, 1889, adopted new penal codes replacing and a 1734 penal code, which applied to both countries and criminalized bestiality with being burnt at the stake. The 1864 Swedish law punished "fornication with animals" (bestiality) with two years hard labor, while the 1889 Finished law punished bestiality with imprisonment for two years.<ref name="Criminally Queer" />


Thus, in 1927, when British sexologist [[Havelock Ellis]] wrote ''Studies in the psychology of sex'', science was still in the stage of describing and categorizing unusual sexual activities, largely according to researchers' preconceived notions or behaviorist observations, under a thin guise of objectivity:
==20th-Century==
[[File:Édouard-Henri Avril (28).jpg|thumb|Plate XVII by Édouard-Henri Avril, ''De Figuris Veneris'' (1906)]]


Havelock-Ellis referenced Kraft-Ebbing's work [[Psychopathia Sexualis]] (1894) which recognized zoophilic voyeurism (watching animals mate), as "fall[ing] within the range of normal variation". He identified touch and emotional closeness producing "sexual excitement or gratification" as "a [[sexual fetish]]ism" termed "erotic zoophilia". Kraft-Ebbing then divides zoosexual activity into "two divisions: one in which the individual is fairly normal, but belongs to a low grade of culture, the other in which he may belong to a more refined social class, but is affected by a deep degree of degeneration," (Kraft-Ebbing named these "bestiality" and "zooerasty" respectively, stating they were different in kind from erotic zoophilia). Havelock-Ellis' view was that:
On June 28, 1935, Nazi Germany enacted legislation that created a separate category in Paragraph 175 for "fornication with animals" and penalized with up to five years in prison.<ref name="an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation">[http://www.tierimrecht.org/en/PDF/Zoophilia_an_Unrecognized_Problem_in_Animal_Welfare_Legislation.pdf Sexuality with Animals (Zoophilia) – an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation ] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303221500/http://www.tierimrecht.org/en/PDF/Zoophilia_an_Unrecognized_Problem_in_Animal_Welfare_Legislation.pdf |date=2016-03-03 }}</ref>
:"Bestiality and zooerastia merely present in a more marked and profoundly perverted form a further degree of the same phenomenon which we meet with in erotic zoophilia; the difference is that they occur either in more insensitive or in more markedly degenerate persons [...] In seeking to comprehend this perversion it is necessary to divest ourselves of the attitude toward animals which is the inevitable outcome of refined civilization and urban life. Most sexual perversions, if not in large measure the actual outcome of civilized life, easily adjust themselves to it. Bestiality [with one exception] is, on the other hand, the sexual perversion of dull, insensitive and unfastidious persons. It flourishes among primitive peoples and among peasants. It is the vice of the clodhopper, unattractive to women..."


* The UK [[Offences Against The Person Act 1861 (repealed)]] brought the act within the realm of the criminal law, stating: ''"Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of [[buggery]], committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall be liable ... to be kept in penal servitude for life ...."'' (In this law, the crossover from religious to civic law can be seen; the characterization as "[[abomination (Bible)|abominable]]" being a term carried over from Canonical law and [[Leviticus 18]])
During the 20th century, zoophilia was legalized in the Russian Empire in 1903,<ref name="Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-siècle Russia">[https://archive.org/details/keystohappinesss0000enge/page/59 <!-- quote=Russia skotolozhstvo. --> The Keys to Happiness: Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-siècle Russia ]</ref> in Denmark (including Greenland and Faroes) on January 1, 1933,<ref name="Criminally Queer" /><ref>[http://www.thegranitetower.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=905 Animal Slaughter is Illegal in Denmark but Animal Prostitution Is Not ]</ref> in Iceland on August 12, 1940,<ref name="Criminally Queer" />  in Sweden in 1944,<ref>[http://www.inquisitr.com/163453/sweden-considering-ban-on-beastiality/ Sweden Considering Ban On Beastiality<!--sic--> ]</ref> in Hungarian People's Republic in 1961, in West Germany in 1969,<ref name="an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation" /> in Austria in 1971,<ref name="an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation" /> in Finland on January 15, 1971,<ref name="Criminally Queer" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://yliopistolehti.helsinki.fi/yl14art.htm#a6|title=Järjettömäin luondocappalden canssa|first=Pekka|last=Kilpinen|work=University of Helsinki|year=2001|accessdate=13 July 2014|language=fi|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20070320104934/http://yliopistolehti.helsinki.fi/yl14art.htm|archivedate=20 March 2007}}</ref> and Norway on April 21, 1972.<ref name="Criminally Queer" />
* Mirabeau, in the 18th century, stated, on the evidence of Basque priests, that "all the shepherds in the Pyrenees practice bestiality". Mantegazza records (Gli Amori degli Uomini, ch. V) that a young [[Apennine]] goatherd believed his [[dyspepsia]] and nervous symptoms stemmed from sexual congress with his animals.  In 18th century South Italy, Sardinia and Sicily, "bestiality among goatherds and peasants is said to be almost a national custom by Bayle" (Dictionary, Bathyllus, cited by Havelock-Ellis as note 50). Warton was informed that in Sardinia and Sicily priests in confession used to habitually inquired of shepherds if they had anything to do with their sheep. In Normandy priests were advised to ask similar questions.
* Jonas Liliequist, a social historian at the University of Umeå in [[Sweden]], who has studied bestiality in Swedish history, observed the abundance of bestiality cases in Swedish courts during the 17th and 18th centuries (more than 1500), and the scarcity of cases of homosexual acts (appr. 20). He raises the question of whether this discrepancy had been because of a more tolerant attitude towards  same sex intercourse than to intercourse between man and animal, or if it had been due to an even more severe taboo against homosexual acts.<ref>Liliequist 1990, 1991, 1995; Träskman 1990; Österberg 1996, cited at [http://www.historia.su.se/personal/jens_rydstrom/artiklar/breaking.pdf historia.su.se (PDF)]</ref>


===Modern era===
==21st-Century==


* "L'Etalon Doux" writes of French openness regarding zoosexuality in media and research, that "A certain acceptance of the sexual connotations of the beast has never been lost from ancient times as in other parts of the world. Even today you are much more likely to see an explicit scene of animals mating in a French erotic film than elsewhere... In 1991 a film appeared in France with a 'General Release' certificate which could only be described as 'Hard Core' animal mating complete with screen filling close-ups and slow motion ejaculations." (Also compare the almost brutally explicit and prolonged horse mating sequence in the Polish film director [[Walerian Borowczyk|Borowczyk]]'s 1975 film "La bête" (The Beast)
In 2003, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 lowered the criminal penalty of bestiality in the United Kingdom from life in prison to two years in prison.<ref>[http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/69 Intercourse with an animal ]</ref>
* There was much speculation that [[Oliver the chimpanzee]] was a human/chimpanzee [[Hybrid (biology)|hybrid]]. However genetic and other tests later convincingly proved this unfounded, and that genetically he seemed an ordinary chimpanzee and showed no significant matches of any kind with human genetics. No hybrid has ever been verified to be genuine.
 
In 2006, Denmark's Council for Animal Ethics said there was no need to ban bestiality unless it took place in pornographic films or sex shows. Only one of the 10 members of the council, set up by the Danish Justice Ministry to establish and uphold animal ethics, wanted bestiality expressly prohibited. The other members said current laws provided enough animal protection.<ref>[http://uk.reuters.com/article/oukoe-uk-denmark-sex-idUKL3073141820061130 Animal sex proposal spurs call for referendum ]</ref> Denmark outlawed bestiality in 2015 after all parties except the Liberal Alliance voted in support of a ban, leaving Hungary, Finland and Romania as the only European Union countries without bans on bestiality.<ref name="bbcdenmark">{{cite news | date = 22 April 2015 | title = Denmark passes law to ban bestiality | work = BBC Newsbeat | accessdate = 20 July 2015 | url = http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/32411241/denmark-passes-law-to-ban-bestiality}}</ref>
 
During the 21st century, bestiality was re-criminalized in the following countries or territories:
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+United States of America
!Federal district or state
!Date criminalized
!Penalty for first-time non-violent bestiality offense
|-
|Iowa
|July 1, 2001
|Class D felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $1,025 to $10,245 and the court may impose other conditions, such as restrictions on owning animals or mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is deemed to have resulted from a psychological or behavioral issue.
|-
|Maine
|September 21, 2001
|Class D crime, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, especially if the offense is part of a pattern of behavior or related to underlying mental health issues. Additionally, offenders may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals and may be required to surrender any animals they currently own.
|-
|Oregon
|January 1, 2002
|Class C felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $125,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is connected to psychological issues. Furthermore, offenders may face restrictions on owning animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Illinois
|January 1, 2003
|Class 4 felony, between 1 to 3 years in prison, a fine up to $25,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be forfeited.
|-
|South Dakota
|July 1, 2003
|Class 6 felony, up to 2 years in prison, a fine up to $4,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is part of a broader pattern of behavior or is related to mental health issues. Additionally, offenders may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Missouri
|August 28, 2003
|Class A misdemeanor, up to 1 year in a county jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Washington
|June 7, 2006
|Class C felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is connected to psychological issues or if the offender is deemed a risk for future offenses. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|Vermont
|July 1, 2006
|Misdemeanor, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may also impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is related to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Arizona
|August 12, 2006
|Class 6 felony, between 4 months to 2 years years in prison, a fine up to $150,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is related to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be forfeited.
|-
|Colorado
|July 1, 2007
|Class 6 felony, between 1 to 1.5 year in prison, with a mandatory parole period of 1 year, a fine up to $100,000, the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is connected to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|Indiana
|July 1, 2007
|Level 6 felony, between 6 months to 2.5 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Tennessee
|July 1, 2007
|Class E felony, between 1 to 6 years in prison, a fine up to $3,000 and the court may also impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Additionally, offenders may be prohibited from owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Alaska
|July 1, 2010
|Class A misdemeanor, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is related to psychological or behavioral issues. Additionally, offenders may be required to forfeit any animals involved in the offense, and they may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals for a period of time after their sentence.
|-
|Florida
|October 1, 2011
|Third-degree felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|Alabama
|July 1, 2014
|Class A misdemeanor, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $6000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and forfeited.
|-
|New Jersey
|November 9, 2015
|Third-degree crime, between 3 to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $15,000 and the court may impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Texas
|September 1, 2017
|State jail felony, between 180 days to 2 years in a state jail facility, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
|-
|Nevada
|October 1, 2017
|Category D felony, between 1 to 4 years in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|New Hampshire
|January 1, 2017
|Class D felony, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is related to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|Kentucky
|June 27, 2019
|Class D felony, between 1 to 5 years in prison, a fine and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|Ohio
|March 24, 2021
|Second-degree misdemeanor, up to 90 days in jail, a fine up to $750 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also be required to forfeit the animal involved in the offense and may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals in the future.
|-
|Hawaii
|June 7, 2021
|Class C felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed. Additionally, offenders may be required to pay restitution for the care of the animals.
|-
|Wyoming
|July 1, 2021
|Felony, up to 2 years in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|District of Columbia
|April 23, 2023
|Class B misdemeanor, up to 180 days in prison, a fine up to $1,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
|-
|New Mexico
|June 16, 2023
|Fourth-degree felony, up to 18 months in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed. The court may also impose community service or other rehabilitative measures.
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Europe
!Country
!Date criminalized
!Penalty for first-time non-violent bestiality offense
|-
|France
|10 March 2004
|Misdemeanor, up to 2 years imprisonment and a fine up to €30,000
|-
|Belgium
|11 May 2007
|Misdemeanor, up to 1 month to 3 years imprisonment and a fine between €52 to €2,000
|-
|Norway
|1 January 2010
|Misdemeanor, up to 1 year imprisonment and a fine up to 75,000 NOK
|-
|Netherlands
|1 July 2010
|Misdemeanor, up to 1 year imprisonment and a fine up to €19,500
|-
|Germany
|13 December 2012
|Administrative offense, a fine up to €25,000 (if the animal was forced)
|-
|Iceland
|1 January 2014
|Misdemeanor, a fine using the day-fine system
|-
|Sweden
|2014-04-01
|Misdemeanor, up to 2 year imprisonment and a fine using the day-fine system
|-
|Spain
|30 March 2015
|Administrative offense, between 1 to 30 days of community service, a fine between 1 to 2 months using the day-fine system and a special disqualification between 3 months to 1 year imposed for the exercise of a profession, trade or trade that is related to animals and for the possession of animals
|-
|Denmark
|1 July 2015
|Misdemeanor, a fine determined by a case-by-case basis
|}
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+Australia
!Territory
!Date criminalized
!Penalty for first-time non-violent bestiality offense
|-
|Australian Capital Territory
|22 March 2011
|Indictable offense, up to 10 years imprisonment
|}


==See also==
==See also==
* [[Humanzee]]
* [[Human–animal marriage]]
* [[Zoophilia]]
* [[Anthrozoology]]
* [[Erotic art]]
* [[History of sex]]
 
==Sources==
Main sources include:
* Robson, ''Bestiality and Bestial Rape in Greek Myth'', 1997, S. Deacy and K. F. Pearce (edd.), Rape in Antiquity, Duckworth, 65-96
* Illustrated Book of Sexual Records
* [http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sexology/GESUND/ARCHIV/SEN/CH06.HTM#b3-BESTIALITY Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, Bestiality entry, at Humboldt University Berlin Sexology Dept]
* Voget, F. W. (1961) Sex life of the American Indians, in Ellis, A. & Abarbanel, A. (Eds.) The Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behavior, Volume 1. London: W. Heinemann, p90-109


== References and external links ==
==References==
<references />
{{reflist|2}}


===Histories of zoophilia by non-zoophiles===
==Further reading==
* Marie-Christine Anest: ''Zoophilie, homosexualite, rites de passage et initiation masculine dans la Greece contemporaine'' (Zoophilia, homosexuality, rites of passage and male initiation in contemporary Greece)'' (1994), {{ISBN|2-7384-2146-6}}
* Dubois-Dessaule: ''Etude Sur la Bestiality au point de Vue Historique (The Study of Bestiality from the Historical, Medical and Legal Viewpoint)'' (Paris, 1905)
* Dubois-Dessaule: ''Etude Sur la Bestiality au point de Vue Historique (The Study of Bestiality from the Historical, Medical and Legal Viewpoint)'' (Paris, 1905)
* Gaston Dubois-Desaulle: ''Bestiality: An Historical, Medical, Legal, and Literary Study'', University Press of the Pacific (November 1, 2003), ISBN 1-4102-0947-4 (Paperback Ed.)
* Gaston Dubois-Desaulle: ''Bestiality: An Historical, Medical, Legal, and Literary Study'', University Press of the Pacific (November 1, 2003), {{ISBN|1-4102-0947-4}} (Paperback Ed.)
 
===Histories of zoophilia by zoophiles===
''Note: these pages are to a degree amateurs research, written to varying standards by parties with a vested interest. However they may also contain numerous factual references and other suggestions of academic interest omitted by or unfamiliar to authors less familiar with the subject.''
* [http://web.archive.org/web/20091027145707/http://geocities.com/CapitolHill/2269/zoohistory.html ] Source 1 - ''"Zoophilia and The Law -- History"''
* [http://internetdump.com/users/akita/zoo-history.html] Source 2 - ''"Zoophilia / Bestiality and History"''
* [http://www.blasderobles.com/Varia/Kircher/legal2.htm] Source 3 - ''"Legal History of bestiality part 2"''
** The above 3 sources were written by "L'Etalon Doux" in the late 1990s and published [[online]] either as web pages or on zoophile [[newsgroup]]s.
 
===Culture and sociology===
* Hans Hentig Ph.D.: ''Soziologie der Zoophilen Neigung (Sociology of the Zoophile Preference)'' (1962)
* Hans Hentig Ph.D.: ''Soziologie der Zoophilen Neigung (Sociology of the Zoophile Preference)'' (1962)
* Marie-Christine Anest: ''Zoophilie, homosexualite, rites de passage et initiation masculine dans la Greece contemporaine'' (Zoophilia, homosexuality, rites of passage and male initiation in contemporary Greece)'' (1994), ISBN  2738421466
* Bronisław Malinowski:<br />''The Trobriand Islands'' (1915)<br /> ''The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia'' (1929)
* Bronisław Malinowski:<br>''The Trobriand Islands'' (1915)<br> ''The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia'' (1929)
* Robson, ''Bestiality and Bestial Rape in Greek Myth'', 1997, S. Deacy and K. F. Pearce (edd.), Rape in Antiquity, Duckworth, 65-96
 
* Voget, F. W. (1961) Sex life of the American Indians, in Ellis, A. & Abarbanel, A. (Eds.) The Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behavior, Volume 1. London: W. Heinemann, p90-109
===Art===
*Holy Scriptures-Ezekiel 23:28
* [http://home.wanadoo.nl/mh/museum/museum02.htm Museum of bestial art] an online museum of zoophilic representation in art (You need to click on "Map" to access the site)


{{DEFAULTSORT:Historical And Cultural Perspectives On Zoophilia}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Historical And Cultural Perspectives On Zoophilia}}
[[Category:Zoosexuality]]
[[Category:History]]
[[Category:Zoosexuality in culture]]
[[Category:Culture]]

Latest revision as of 18:43, 12 October 2024

The history of zoophilia and bestiality begins in the prehistoric era, where depictions of humans and non-human animals in a sexual context appear infrequently in European rock art.[1] Bestiality remained a theme in mythology and folklore through the classical period and into the Middle Ages (e.g. the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan)[2] and several ancient authors purported to document it as a regular, accepted practice—albeit usually in "other" cultures.

Explicit legal prohibition of human sexual contact with other animals is a legacy of the Abrahamic religions:[2] the Hebrew Bible imposes the death penalty on both the person and animal involved in an act of bestiality.[3] There are several examples known from medieval Europe of people and animals executed for committing bestiality. With the Age of Enlightenment, bestiality was subsumed with other sexual "crimes against nature" into civil sodomy laws, usually remaining a capital crime.

Bestiality remains illegal in most countries. Arguments used to justify this include: it is against religion, it is a "crime against nature," and that non-human animals cannot give consent and that sex with animals is inherently abusive.[4] In common with many paraphilias, the internet has provided a connective platform for the zoophile community, which has lobbied for the recognition of zoophilia (or zoosexuality as an alternative sexuality), and advocated for the legalisation of bestiality.[5]

Prehistory

Depictions of human sexual activity with animals appear infrequently in prehistoric art. Possibly the oldest depiction, and the only known example from the Palaeolithic (prior to the domestication of animals), is found in the Vale do Côa in Portugal. It shows a man with an exaggerated, erect penis juxtaposed with a goat. However, there is some doubt that the two figures are contemporary; while the goat is depicted in characteristic palaeolithic style, the scene may have been altered in a later period with the insertion of the human figure.[6]

From the Neolithic onwards, images of zoophilia are slightly more common. Examples are found at Coren del Valento, a cave in Val Camonica, Italy, containing rock art dating from 10,000 BCE to as late as the Middle Ages, one depicting a man penetrating a horse,[7] and Sagaholm, a Bronze Age cairn in Sweden where several petroglyphs have been found with similar scenes.[8]

Classical antiquity

File:Da michelangelo, leda e il cigno, post 1530 (national gallery) 01.jpg
Leda and the Swan, copy of lost Michelangelo

Several Greek myths include the God Zeus seducing or abducting favoured mortals while in the form of an animal: Europa and the bull, Ganymede and the eagle, and Leda and the Swan.[2] Only the latter legend includes actual copulation between Leda and Zeus in his animal form, but depictions of this act, fairly uncommon in antiquity, became a popular motif in classicising Renaissance art, contributing to a lasting prominence in Western culture.[9]

Zoophilia carving on Rock with Old Kannada script engraved at Kedareshvara Temple, Balligavi

Various classical writers recorded that bestiality was common in other cultures. Herodotus was followed by Pindar, Strabo and Plutarch[citation needed] in alleging that Egyptian women engaged in sexual relations with goats for religious and magical purposes – the animal aspects of Egyptian deities being particularly alien to the Greco-Roman world.[10][11] Conversely, Plutarch and Virgil make similar accusations of the Greeks.

Despite their place in mythology and literature, actual acts of bestiality were probably as uncommon in antiquity as they are today.[2] Roman civil law, however, made no mention of it.[12] The explicit prohibition of and strict penalties for zoophilia universal in later European legal systems were derived from Jewish and Christian tradition.[2] The Hebrew Bible imposes the death penalty on both the human and animal parties involved in an act of bestiality: "if a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal."[3] The Synod of Ancyra in 313–316 discussed the position of the church with regard to bestiality at length and two of the resulting twenty-five canons addressed it: the sixteenth canon described the penance and level of restrictions to be applied to various age groups for committing bestiality; the seventeenth canon prohibited all lepers from praying inside church if they had committed bestiality while they suffered from leprosy.[13]

Hittite law mandated the death penalty for intercourse with animals, excluding horses and mules (violators were instead barred from the priesthood and from approaching the king).[14]

Europe: Middle Ages

In the Church-oriented culture of the Middle Ages, zoosexual activity was met with execution, typically burning, and death to the animals involved either the same way or by hanging.[citation needed] Sects deemed heretical by the Church such as the Hussites were accused of bestiality.[15] Masters comments that:

"Theologians, bowing to Biblical prohibitions and basing their judgements on the conception of man as a spiritual being and of the animal as a merely carnal one, have regarded the same phenomenon as both a violation of Biblical edicts and a degradation of man, with the result that the act of bestiality has been castigated and anathematized [...]"[citation needed]

In 1468, Jean Beisse, accused of bestiality with a cow on one occasion and a goat on another, was first hanged, then burned. The animals involved were also burned. In 1539, Guillaume Garnier, charged with intercourse with a female dog (described as "sodomy"), was ordered strangled after he confessed under torture. The dog was burned, along with the trial records which were "too horrible and potentially dangerous to be permitted to exist" (Masters). Other accusations of bestiality in the period include the trials of Thomas Weir[16][17][18] and John Atherton.[19][20][21] In 1601, Claudine de Culam, a young girl of sixteen, was convicted of copulating with a dog. Both the girl and the dog were first hanged, and finally burned. In 1735, François Borniche was charged with sexual intercourse with animals. It was greatly feared that "his infamous debauches may corrupt the young men." He was imprisoned, and there is no record of his release.[citation needed] Historians claim there were more than a thousand executions recorded for bestiality in Sweden throughout the 17th and 18th centuries.[22][23]

On the other hand, other accounts are more possibly fictitious, such as Pietro Damiani's, who in his "De bono religiosi status et variorum animatium tropologia" (11th century) tells of a Count Gulielmus whose pet ape became his wife's lover. One day the ape became "mad with jealousy" on seeing the count lying with his wife that it fatally attacked him. Damiani claims he was told about this incident by Pope Alexander II and shown an offspring claimed to be that of the ape and woman. (Illustrated Book of Sexual Records)[citation needed]

Clergyman and chronicler Gerald of Wales claimed to have witnessed a man having intercourse with a horse as part of a pagan ritual in Ireland.[24][25]

Although thousands of female witches were accused of having sex with animals, usually said to be the Devil in animal form or their familiars, court records available in Europe and the United States, dating back to the 14th century and continuing into the 20th century, nearly always show males, rather than females, as the human parties in court cases. (Encyclopedia of Human Sexuality, Humboldt University)[citation needed]

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.[26][27]

19th-Century

In 1835, the Russian Empire criminalized skotolozhstvo (bestiality) in the country. In 1845, the Russian Empire merged both muzhelozhstvo (sodomy) and skotolozhstvo statues together into a single statue prohibiting protivoestestvennye poroki (vices contrary to nature).[28] On August 20, 1848, Norway adopted new penal codes which replaced a 1687 law that implemented the capital punishment by burning for "intercourse which is against nature" (bestiality) and reduced the punishment for engaging in bestiality from capital punishment to a sentence of hard labor of the fifth degree.[29]

In 1855, the German physician Wilhelm Gollmann claimed that sodomy was initially committed by shepherds. He adds that shepherds were drawn to this method of pleasure for the "want of more natural opportunities." Gollmann then prejudicially attacks Sicilians, whom he claims commit zoophilia against goats. According to Blumenbach, the females of Guinea commit indecent acts against monkeys. Gollmann finalizes his dubious claims with his assertion that Iranians commit acts against donkeys as a cure for coxalgia.[30]

In 1852, the Austrian Empire enacted § 130 which criminalized bestiality with a maximum of five years in prison. About fifty people were convicted annually due to the law.[31] In 1861, the Offences against the Person Act 1861 lowered the criminal penalty of buggery in the United Kingdom from the death penalty to life in prison.[27] On February 10, 1866, Denmark (including Greenland and Faroes) adopted new penal codes which replaced a 1683 law that implemented the death penalty at the stake by means of royal pardon for "intercourse against nature" (bestiality) and reduced the punishment for engaging in bestiality from capital punishment to a sentence of hard labor ranging from about eight months to six years, which was further reduced with about one third if the penalty was served in solitude.[29] On June 25, 1869, Iceland adopted a new penal code that replaced a 13th-century law mandating death by burning for "intercourse which is against nature" (bestiality) to a punishment of work in a house of correction.[29]

On May 15, 1871, the German Empire enacted Paragraph 175 into the “Reichs-Criminal Code” (RStGB) which outlawed zoophilia and punished it by imprisonment.[31][32] In 1878, the penal code of the Kingdom of Hungary criminalized bestiality with a maximum of one year in prison.[27] Sweden, in 1864, and Grand Duchy of Finland, on December 19, 1889, adopted new penal codes replacing and a 1734 penal code, which applied to both countries and criminalized bestiality with being burnt at the stake. The 1864 Swedish law punished "fornication with animals" (bestiality) with two years hard labor, while the 1889 Finished law punished bestiality with imprisonment for two years.[29]

20th-Century

Plate XVII by Édouard-Henri Avril, De Figuris Veneris (1906)

On June 28, 1935, Nazi Germany enacted legislation that created a separate category in Paragraph 175 for "fornication with animals" and penalized with up to five years in prison.[31]

During the 20th century, zoophilia was legalized in the Russian Empire in 1903,[28] in Denmark (including Greenland and Faroes) on January 1, 1933,[29][33] in Iceland on August 12, 1940,[29] in Sweden in 1944,[34] in Hungarian People's Republic in 1961, in West Germany in 1969,[31] in Austria in 1971,[31] in Finland on January 15, 1971,[29][35] and Norway on April 21, 1972.[29]

21st-Century

In 2003, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 lowered the criminal penalty of bestiality in the United Kingdom from life in prison to two years in prison.[36]

In 2006, Denmark's Council for Animal Ethics said there was no need to ban bestiality unless it took place in pornographic films or sex shows. Only one of the 10 members of the council, set up by the Danish Justice Ministry to establish and uphold animal ethics, wanted bestiality expressly prohibited. The other members said current laws provided enough animal protection.[37] Denmark outlawed bestiality in 2015 after all parties except the Liberal Alliance voted in support of a ban, leaving Hungary, Finland and Romania as the only European Union countries without bans on bestiality.[38]

During the 21st century, bestiality was re-criminalized in the following countries or territories:

United States of America
Federal district or state Date criminalized Penalty for first-time non-violent bestiality offense
Iowa July 1, 2001 Class D felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $1,025 to $10,245 and the court may impose other conditions, such as restrictions on owning animals or mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is deemed to have resulted from a psychological or behavioral issue.
Maine September 21, 2001 Class D crime, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, especially if the offense is part of a pattern of behavior or related to underlying mental health issues. Additionally, offenders may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals and may be required to surrender any animals they currently own.
Oregon January 1, 2002 Class C felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $125,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is connected to psychological issues. Furthermore, offenders may face restrictions on owning animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Illinois January 1, 2003 Class 4 felony, between 1 to 3 years in prison, a fine up to $25,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be forfeited.
South Dakota July 1, 2003 Class 6 felony, up to 2 years in prison, a fine up to $4,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is part of a broader pattern of behavior or is related to mental health issues. Additionally, offenders may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Missouri August 28, 2003 Class A misdemeanor, up to 1 year in a county jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Washington June 7, 2006 Class C felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is connected to psychological issues or if the offender is deemed a risk for future offenses. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
Vermont July 1, 2006 Misdemeanor, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may also impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling if the offense is related to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Arizona August 12, 2006 Class 6 felony, between 4 months to 2 years years in prison, a fine up to $150,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is related to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be forfeited.
Colorado July 1, 2007 Class 6 felony, between 1 to 1.5 year in prison, with a mandatory parole period of 1 year, a fine up to $100,000, the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is connected to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
Indiana July 1, 2007 Level 6 felony, between 6 months to 2.5 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Tennessee July 1, 2007 Class E felony, between 1 to 6 years in prison, a fine up to $3,000 and the court may also impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Additionally, offenders may be prohibited from owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Alaska July 1, 2010 Class A misdemeanor, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may order psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is related to psychological or behavioral issues. Additionally, offenders may be required to forfeit any animals involved in the offense, and they may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals for a period of time after their sentence.
Florida October 1, 2011 Third-degree felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
Alabama July 1, 2014 Class A misdemeanor, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $6000 and the court may impose additional conditions, such as mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and forfeited.
New Jersey November 9, 2015 Third-degree crime, between 3 to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $15,000 and the court may impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Texas September 1, 2017 State jail felony, between 180 days to 2 years in a state jail facility, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may impose mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized.
Nevada October 1, 2017 Category D felony, between 1 to 4 years in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
New Hampshire January 1, 2017 Class D felony, up to 1 year in jail, a fine up to $2,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is related to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
Kentucky June 27, 2019 Class D felony, between 1 to 5 years in prison, a fine and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
Ohio March 24, 2021 Second-degree misdemeanor, up to 90 days in jail, a fine up to $750 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also be required to forfeit the animal involved in the offense and may face restrictions on owning or possessing animals in the future.
Hawaii June 7, 2021 Class C felony, up to 5 years in prison, a fine up to $10,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed. Additionally, offenders may be required to pay restitution for the care of the animals.
Wyoming July 1, 2021 Felony, up to 2 years in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
District of Columbia April 23, 2023 Class B misdemeanor, up to 180 days in prison, a fine up to $1,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to behavioral or psychological issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed.
New Mexico June 16, 2023 Fourth-degree felony, up to 18 months in prison, a fine up to $5,000 and the court may order mandatory psychological counseling, particularly if the offense is linked to psychological or behavioral issues. Offenders may also face restrictions on owning or possessing animals, and any animals involved in the offense may be seized and rehomed. The court may also impose community service or other rehabilitative measures.
Europe
Country Date criminalized Penalty for first-time non-violent bestiality offense
France 10 March 2004 Misdemeanor, up to 2 years imprisonment and a fine up to €30,000
Belgium 11 May 2007 Misdemeanor, up to 1 month to 3 years imprisonment and a fine between €52 to €2,000
Norway 1 January 2010 Misdemeanor, up to 1 year imprisonment and a fine up to 75,000 NOK
Netherlands 1 July 2010 Misdemeanor, up to 1 year imprisonment and a fine up to €19,500
Germany 13 December 2012 Administrative offense, a fine up to €25,000 (if the animal was forced)
Iceland 1 January 2014 Misdemeanor, a fine using the day-fine system
Sweden 2014-04-01 Misdemeanor, up to 2 year imprisonment and a fine using the day-fine system
Spain 30 March 2015 Administrative offense, between 1 to 30 days of community service, a fine between 1 to 2 months using the day-fine system and a special disqualification between 3 months to 1 year imposed for the exercise of a profession, trade or trade that is related to animals and for the possession of animals
Denmark 1 July 2015 Misdemeanor, a fine determined by a case-by-case basis
Australia
Territory Date criminalized Penalty for first-time non-violent bestiality offense
Australian Capital Territory 22 March 2011 Indictable offense, up to 10 years imprisonment

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bahn, Paul G. (1998). The Cambridge illustrated history of prehistoric art. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 188. ISBN 978-0-521-45473-5. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Cornog, M.; Perper, T. (1994). "Bestiality". In Haeberle, E. J.; Bullough, B. L.; Bullough; et al. (eds.). Human Sexuality: An Encyclopedia. New York & London: Garland. Archived from the original on 4 February 2012. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Leviticus 20:15
  4. ↑ Regan, Tom. Animal Rights, Human Wrongs. Rowman & Littlefield, 2003, pp. 63-4, 89.
  5. ↑ Francis, Thomas (20 August 2009). "Those Who Practice Bestiality Say They're Part of the Next Sexual Rights Movement". Broward Palm Beach New Times. Archived from the original on 15 February 2015. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  6. ↑ Angulo Cuesta, J.; García Diez, M. (2006). "Diversity and meaning of Palaeolithic phallic male representations in Western Europe". Actas Urol Esp. 30 (3): 254–267. Archived from the original on 2012-07-26.
  7. ↑ Anati, E. (2008). "The Way of Life Recorded in the Rock Art of Valcamonica" (PDF). Adoranten. Scandinavian Society for Prehistoric Art (2008). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-08-19.
  8. ↑ "Sagaholm". On the rocks. Archived from the original on 7 September 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  9. ↑ Bull, M. (2005). The Mirror of the Gods, How Renaissance Artists Rediscovered the Pagan Gods. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-521923-6.
  10. ↑ Ray, J. D. (2002). "Animal Cults". In Redford, D. B. (ed.). The Ancient Gods Speak: A Guide to Egyptian Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 90. ISBN 978-0-19-515401-6.
  11. ↑ Leavitt, J. (1992). "The Cults of Isis among the Greeks and in the Roman Empire". In Bonnefoy, Y. (ed.). Greek and Egyptian Mythologies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. p. 248. ISBN 978-0-226-06454-3.
  12. ↑ Norton, R. "Of Sodomy and Bestiality". Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  13. ↑ "THE COUNCIL OF ANCYRA, HISTORICAL NOTE & CANONS". Archived from the original on 13 February 2010. Retrieved 18 February 2012.
  14. ↑ The Code of the Nesilim, c. 1650-1500 BCE Retrieved 24 July 2013
  15. ↑ Out Of Print; Marmor, J. (1980). Homosexual Behavior. Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-03045-3. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  16. ↑ Raffe, Alasdair (2012). The Culture of Controversy: Religious Arguments in Scotland, 1660-1714. ISBN 9781843837299.
  17. ↑ Henderson, Lizanne (8 April 2016). Witchcraft and Folk Belief in the Age of Enlightenment: Scotland, 1670-1740. ISBN 9781137313249.
  18. ↑ Quilligan, Maureen (7 June 2011). Incest and Agency in Elizabeth's England. ISBN 978-0812203301.
  19. ↑ Marmion, Anthony (June 2013). The Ancient and Modern History of the Maritime Ports of Ireland. ISBN 9783954273522.
  20. ↑ Wirrig, Adam L. (4 April 2022). Trial of Translation: An Examination of 1 Corinthians 6:9 in the Vernacular Bibles of the Early Modern Period. ISBN 9781725277557.
  21. ↑ Gibson, William; Begiato, Joanne (28 February 2017). Sex and the Church in the Long Eighteenth Century: Religion, Enlightenment and the Sexual Revolution. ISBN 9781786731579.
  22. ↑ Österberg, E. (2010). Friendship and Love, Ethics and Politics: Studies in Mediaeval and Early Modern History. The Natalie Zemon Davis Annual Lectures Series. Central European University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-615-5211-79-9. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  23. ↑ Krogh, T. (2011). A Lutheran Plague: Murdering to Die in the Eighteenth Century. Studies in Central European Histories. Brill. p. 59. ISBN 978-90-04-22137-6. Retrieved 2022-11-30.
  24. ↑ Last Night's Television: Always let a sleeping pagan lie
  25. ↑ Banks-Smith, Nancy (July 20, 2004). "Please, please tell me now". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 4, 2010.
  26. ↑ Napoleonic Code Archived 2014-09-10 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 Bestiality and Zoophilia: Sexual Relations with Animals
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 The Keys to Happiness: Sex and the Search for Modernity in Fin-de-siècle Russia
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 29.5 29.6 29.7 Rydström, Jens (May 31, 2007). Criminally Queer: Homosexuality and Criminal Law in Scandinavia 1842-1999. ISBN 9789052602455. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
  30. ↑ Gollmann, Wilhelm (1854). Homeopathic Guide to all Diseases Urinary and Sexual Organ. Charles Julius Hempel. Rademacher & Sheek.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 31.3 31.4 Sexuality with Animals (Zoophilia) – an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
  32. ↑ Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall
  33. ↑ Animal Slaughter is Illegal in Denmark but Animal Prostitution Is Not
  34. ↑ Sweden Considering Ban On Beastiality
  35. ↑ Kilpinen, Pekka (2001). "Järjettömäin luondocappalden canssa". University of Helsinki (in suomi). Archived from the original on 20 March 2007. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
  36. ↑ Intercourse with an animal
  37. ↑ Animal sex proposal spurs call for referendum
  38. ↑ "Denmark passes law to ban bestiality". BBC Newsbeat. 22 April 2015. Retrieved 20 July 2015.

Further reading

  • Marie-Christine Anest: Zoophilie, homosexualite, rites de passage et initiation masculine dans la Greece contemporaine (Zoophilia, homosexuality, rites of passage and male initiation in contemporary Greece) (1994), ISBN 2-7384-2146-6
  • Dubois-Dessaule: Etude Sur la Bestiality au point de Vue Historique (The Study of Bestiality from the Historical, Medical and Legal Viewpoint) (Paris, 1905)
  • Gaston Dubois-Desaulle: Bestiality: An Historical, Medical, Legal, and Literary Study, University Press of the Pacific (November 1, 2003), ISBN 1-4102-0947-4 (Paperback Ed.)
  • Hans Hentig Ph.D.: Soziologie der Zoophilen Neigung (Sociology of the Zoophile Preference) (1962)
  • Bronisław Malinowski:
    The Trobriand Islands (1915)
    The Sexual Life of Savages in North-Western Melanesia (1929)
  • Robson, Bestiality and Bestial Rape in Greek Myth, 1997, S. Deacy and K. F. Pearce (edd.), Rape in Antiquity, Duckworth, 65-96
  • Voget, F. W. (1961) Sex life of the American Indians, in Ellis, A. & Abarbanel, A. (Eds.) The Encyclopaedia of Sexual Behavior, Volume 1. London: W. Heinemann, p90-109
  • Holy Scriptures-Ezekiel 23:28
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