December 6, 2012 | Sex & Society

Bestiality legal in Germany ... but not for long

Did you know that bestiality has been legal in Germany since 1969? And while the German government is planning to revise its laws to make bestiality a criminal offense, there is a tiny group of people, known as zoophiles, who are arguing for the status quo. They claim that they treat animals as equals and would never force an animal to do something against its will.

"We are going to take legal action to fight this," said Michael Kiok, chairman of the pressure group Zoophile Engagement for Tolerance and Information (Zeta), which claims to have about 100 members. "Central to the beliefs of zoophiles is that we don't do anything that the animal doesn't want. We do not treat them cruelly. An animal is quite capable of showing precisely what it wants and does not want. When I look at my dog I know immediately what it wants. Animals are much easier to understand than women."

Does he use the 'bark once for yes, twice for no' method?

"We don't have anything to do with people who abuse animals," Kiok argued. "We only want what's best for the animal. "It cannot be that the mutually gratifying sexual contact between human and animal is forbidden because it's unfavourable to the species, but the abuse of animals in the agricultural industry continues."

Another way of looking at it is to think of animals as children and the zoophiles as adults with power over them. From that perspective, forbidding people from having sex with pets or farm animals is akin to protecting a young child from unwanted sexual advances. Still we have to ask: if we're all so concerned about animal welfare, why do we keep eating them? 

Germany to ban bestiality under animal welfare law [The Guardian]