ANIMAL SEXUAL ABUSE
FACT SHEET
WHAT IS ANIMAL SEXUAL ABUSE?
Animal sexual abuse, often referred to as bestiality’, is the sexual molestation of an animal by a human. This kind of animal abuse includes a wide range of behaviors such as vaginal, anal, or oral penetration; fondling: oral-genital contact: penetration using an object; and killing or injuring an animal for sexual gratification. Animal sexual abuse may or may not include physical violence other than the sexual violation; and may or may not result in physical injury to the animal. Animal sexual abuse, like rape, is the eroticization of violence, control, and exploitation.
IS ANIMAL SEXUAL ABUSE A PROBLEM TODAY?
Yes. although we don’t have statistics to tell as how many animals currently are being sexually abused. This problem is difficult to quantify because most of the abuse occurs in secret and the victims can never tell. Studies of the rate of human attempts to have forced sex with animals have variously estimated that the percentage of males who sexually abuse animals is between 1 and 65 % (Adams, 1995). Kinsey & Pomeroy’s
1948 study of male sexual behavior found that 8% of the total U.S. male population admitted to having had sexual contact with animals.
Evidence that sexual abuse of animals still occurs is readily available. Almost any Internet search engine will lead you to very graphic and disturbing material describing and promoting the sexual abuse of animals. Photographs of this abuse are easily accessed by anyone on the Internet, even children. And for every photograph shown on the Internet, a real animal was abused. Detailed how-to guides for the sexual abuse of animals involving a variety of species can be found on the intemet, along with information on laws, animal-transmitted diseases, personal advertisements, -pro-zoophile” resources, and even a model letter for an animal abuser to use to -come-our to his/her friends and relatives. Many web sites provide links to numerous different pornographic sites that include the sexual abuse of animals. One site provided almost 200 links, and this site alone reports receiving approximately 46,000 visits per day. Investigating and reporting these Internet activities has proven difficult—sites are often moved and renamed, and identities are kept secret. Many -zoophiles- or -zoosexuals,” as they refer to themselves, spend hours communicating with other abusers in internet chat rooms where animal sexual abuse is accepted or even promoted, advice is given, and detailed descriptions of abusive activities are shared_
IS IT REALLY ANIMAL ABUSE?
Yes. Sexual molestation of animals by humans may physically injure or kill the animal victim. Cases of dogs with severe rectal tearing from anal sexual contact; cats killed by penetration by a human male: chickens decapitated to increase the abuser’s sexual pleasure: animals beaten stabbed, or mutilated during or after sexual contact: and animals crushed for sexual gratification have been reported. Many animals are physically restrained during the abuse. Not all cases of animal sexual abuse will involve physical injury to the animal. but all sexual molestation of an animal by a human is abuse.
In his 1993 article, On Frank Ascione stated that “bestiality may be considered cruel even in cases when physical harm to an animal does not occur (this is similar to the case of adult sexual activity with a child where consent is presumed to be impossible).” This is because animals are unable to be fully informed, communicate consent, or to speak out about their abuse. In a 1997 article, Piers Beirne, Professor of Criminology at the University of Southern Maine, points out that -for genuine consent to sexual relations to be present…both participants must be conscious, fully informed and positive in their desires. Bestiality is by nature sexual coercion because animals are incapable of genuinely saying ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to humans in forms we can readily understand.” In human-animal relationships, the human has power and control over the animal, often in all aspects of the animal’s care and well-being. Thus, a sexual “relationship” between human and animal cannot be considered consensual.
Animal sexual abuse may also be referred to as zoophilia, bestiality, zooerasty, or sodomy.