[NSFW] Why is this act illegal?

I’m guessing society chooses to establish some basic “moral truths”, and not bangin’ animals is one of those truths.

On a very superficial level, I would say that it has to do with need. The need for food, for pack animals, for transportation, for protection, etc – those are all basic needs for survival.

Recreational sex is not a basic need.

That, of course, begs the question of animals as pets. And in that case, I guess that I would argue that keeping animals as pets is a mutually beneficial relationship. The argument breaks down, I realize, but I’ll have to give the issue some more thought.

@Blackberry Morality is subjective. So should we be making it illegal for some to do something which they don’t hold to be a moral truth?

@syz what about animals bred to be show dogs or pets?

edit: woops you just addressed that.

It almost seems as if the “man has dominion over the animals” believers would be less inclined to rule out bestiality, except that they then have their religious beliefs to set boundaries (which almost makes me feel more kindly towards organized religion. Almost).

But clearly, we’re just another type of animal. A much more highly evolved animal. An animal that has developed an idea of morality. And my own morality says “It’s just wrong”. I may not be able to support the idea via argument, but I’ll support it, nonetheless.

@syz yea I read that and added my own fine print hehe

Because it’s non consensual, which makes it rape. Admittedly, it would be classed as statutory if a bull with a hard on bears down on you, but that’s just a legal technicality.

@Jellie I already know this, but this is just my observation. For example, society also views a 30 year old and 15 year old having sex as breaking some moral ground. It’s just what the majority decided as “wrong”

@ucme that’s my point… the rest of the activities I’ve listed are non-consensual as well. So why when it comes to sex do we think that sex is too vile an activity to allow.

@Blackberry in that scenario we can possibly see that a 15 year old could be manipulated by someone that much older and be used.

Can you guys tell I love playing the devil’s advocate? :P

@Jellie Well I think Miss Piggy deserves a couple of drinks & a nice meal first don’t you? Earn that hump you mad passionate fool you ;¬}

@Jellie Yep, and it is the same consensus with the lack of consent with animals. One of our “moral truths” is that the non-mature and non-consenting shouldn’t be preyed upon. But it’s all debatable.

@ucme I give my dates some treats and belly rubs before I make a move. I know how to treat em ;)

I am gross…

The question and many of the responses here are approaching bestiality as a wrong done to the animal. I’m pretty sure that bestiality is deemed wrong or a crime because it is considered to be a defilement of the person, not the animal.

Using an animal sexually is like using a child sexually. An animal is an innocent. it cannot consent. It is abhorrent.

If one penetrates a penguin, could one be said to be placing their meat into cold storage?

@dappled_leaves should we stand in the way of someone that wants to defile themselves.

@marinelife children aren’t considered sexual beings. That’s why any act like that takes away their innocence and is wrong. Animals have sex all the time.

@Jellie Only to reproduce.

@marinelife – ever heard of bonobos?

@Jellie… can’t say I’ve thought about it. I would disagree that you can’t have consensual sex with an animal, but well… it’s just sad, you know?

Depends on where you live.
It is not illegal in Germany. But it is illegal to record it on video or photo.

@marinelife I’ve heard pigs do it for pleasure too. And I just googled bonobos so pretty interesting. But anyway why should that stop us from using animals for pleasure if we use them for other things?

@dappled_leaves I know the only argument I can think to myself as well is that it’s sad and disgusting… I really can’t think of another reason as to why I am so against it. That’s why I’m asking the collective for some insight.

@ragingloli interestingggggg, thanks for that fact

Lobbyist for the prostitution industry maybe thought it was cutting into profits?

I think it is really the “Eeewww” factor rather than any highly moral grounds. After all ewes can’t consent to rams either.

@Jellie What we “use them for” are necessities of life (food) or work partnerships not sex. I happen to believe that animals have feelings. For those animals who do have sex for pleasure even more reason they should not be raped by humans.

@ucme just try penetrating a penguin without consent.

@ucme Lawlz.

Humans kill/murder animals by the millions for food, fur and entertainment (apparently without their consent, either).How is sex is worse than that?

@marinelife, my roommate was once horrified (and I cannot understate this – it took at least a week for him to recover) to realize that he had accidentally aroused our housecat to the point of ejaculation. If he had even known this was possible, he would have tried to avoid it. But the cat certainly used him for sexual pleasure. Man on animal sex does not have to mean that the animal is being raped.

@dappled_leaves hahahahahaha okay that literally made me choke on my drink. Even more so because your friend felt violated.

If it cannot speak the words “NO”, than it is deemed illegal and morally wrong!

@Jellie Yup, the memory still cracks me up every single time… :D

This thread fascinates me! I suppose if the animal initiates the act, the legality becomes less of an issue. Janbb’s analysis is both punny and spot-on—even the animals don’t consent to intra-species copulation. I remain in the anti-bestiality camp, though.

@Bill_Lumbergh and @marinelife they can’t say no being kept in our houses as pets or being reared to be show animals, or for riding in Ascot or being raced… but we do that…

Also circuses, zoos, safaris.

Okay, really serious answer as I have been thinking about it.

If anyone in the room of the legislature is squeamish about it and says “We should make bestiality illegal, does anyone disagree?”. Nobody is going to argue with that person. It just would never happen.

Could you imagine being the person in town, or quoted in the newspaper, as the councilor for animal sex?

lol @Imadethisupwithnoforethought. Any laws currently on the books have probably evolved from religious laws… animals are unclean, so don’t lie with them, people. And they weren’t wrong – animals were probably considerably less clean than we keep them.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought exactly. There are not that many people into it. But any that are, they would be embarrassed to admit it because of the stigma around it. Maybe if it wasn’t so condemned more people would speak up. We do know for a fact that people exist that like sex with animals.

I would vote to ban it.

I lose enough girls to other men

Okay I had some thoughts. Please feel free to poke holes in the argument.

Sex with animals is taboo (as opposed to any other type of animal use) because sex is considered and intimate and very personal activity. So maybe sexing an animal violates them in a way that other uses don’t.

Just as a general theory, I don’t think anything should be illegal unless it hurts other people, puts others safety in jeopardy, etc. etc. But then that is all subjective, if you hurt someone by cheating on them should that be illegal? Makes you understand why it’s so hard for society to come up with any sort of “moral code” that everyone agrees with. And what the hell is morality anyway?! Urgh life…too…hard.

* Collapses *

@Jellie agreed. Following that line of logic, I think more people, in general, are more squeamish about sex acts than violence.

The way we think about bestiality is something of a Rorschach test.

@Keep_on_running There’s a glitch in the matrix….this world’s not real…...mom!

@Blackberry xD.

I would think the most moral and consistent position would be to do none of these things (slaughter animals, raise them in factory farm conditions, have sex with them), rather than to do all of them.

Domestication seems like a bit of a gray area, since often housepets have loving and mutually beneficial relationships with their owners, as @syz pointed out.

@Keep_on_running, adultery is illegal in many jurisdictions.

@Keep_on_running yea morality is just a bitch of a topic to discuss. I remember it being a chapter for our jurisprudence classes and they ALWAYS used to end later than scheduled and with people getting way too emotionally invested. Fun times.

Imadethisupwithnoforethought Your Rorschach comment aside, I would vote to ban it, too, though not because it is categorically wrong. There’s just too much possibility for abuse.

Because it’s a diabolical perversion.

@dappled_leaves then we are right back to @nikipedia ‘s opinion, because I am pretty sure a lot of abuse happens in slaughterhouses

I just don’t get it, why would a human wanna have sex with an animal? Why???

@mazingerz88 You don’t have to buy them drinks and pretend to care what they have to say (high five?!). Lol.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought
I think slaughterhouses in particular are easier to regulate as opposed to sex with animals.

@Blackberry Yeah man, but I think it’s only because they keep asking and it comes out as “Meeh! meeeh! meeh!

Please explain to me the appeal here, a sheep rather than one’s hand?? A horse’s thing rather than…wait, come to think of it…hmmm. I think there was a French or an English royalty who loved visiting the stables? It will be disgusting to me but researching which animals man had actually had whatever with would be interesting. Dog, horse, sheep…I can’t think of anything else…

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought That is true, but it doesn’t bear on whether or not bestiality should be illegal. Making the consumption of animals illegal would be a much harder case, because we almost all stand to lose something we don’t want to give up.

But again – this is why I say that laws against bestiality are meant to protect against its effect on the person, not its effect on the animal. No one gives a damn about the animal when they write an anti-bestiality law.

Anyone know of the one of the first ever disgusting viral videos: Mr. Hands?

@dappled_leaves absolutely agree it has zero to do with the animal.

@Jellie I know you think you will find logic here, but you’d have a better time finding a needle in a 25ft stack of needles.
Why is bestiality illegal? It is a sin, that is why it is illegal. No matter how you slice it, it is a sin because it is a cross over from the Bible. Now secularly people want to distance themselves as much as they can from that fact but most major sins, are also crimes. The work “morality”, keeps popping up. The way, in which it is described, it is what the majority deems correct. As I have said before, secular morality is organized mob rule. If you have the numbers and the might to enforce it, your policy is legal and moral. If I lived in a small isolated community and we enjoyed cannibalism who is to say we were immoral? Visitors come, we fatten up at a feast, then we eat them. For us it would be normal, and thus moral. The only way it would be immoral is if we ate someone from a more powerful nation or group and they dispatched an army and defeated us, then they can hold us up to the flame of their morality and punish us for not complying. However, if they do not have the might to make us capitulate, if they didn’t escape back home to their lands or nation, we eat them too. It all settles in might makes right.

People try to use the non-consent card. Bogus, has no wind it its sails. Do dogs, cats and other animals consent to be help, some in cages, by their owners even if they benefit? That is a stretch, isn’t it? I could run with that one for days. I am sure, much less, they give their consent to be hunted and killed. That is an argument that is all hat and no cattle.

I am not for bestiality, though man has been given dominion over all the creature of the Earth. Bestiality is man or woman giving up natural relations for unnatural ones. As you say, we use animals for all sorts of things, guarding property, bulling sleds, finding dead bodies, sniffing out drugs, doing tricks, jumping through hoops of fire, whatever our sole whim is. No one ask an elephant if it want to prance around the ring holding each other’s tail for the amusement of some chubby 9ry old kid with cotton candy all over his face. In reality, animals have no say over anything. In a secular sense, animals are used for anything else, so using for sex would be just as natural.

Damn, everyone is getting an Exhibitionist award but me. ;)

@Hypocrisy_Central Oh, geez…....

@Hypocrisy_Central Simply put, it’s only moral if it could be supported by might?

This is becoming uncomfortable!

What would be the purpose to understanding something vile. Societies must set rules and boundries of acceptable behavior. Rapist have no regard for their victims and even though this is something that they may deem as natural, we do not. If someone where to come upon a person having sex with some animal, most would find it revolting. Where if they were to see sex between a couple in a park, they may actually get people sneaking peeks. As a whole to societ it is a more acceptable behavior. I don’t need to know why my stomach will lurch at the idea of a human with an animal. I don’t need to understand it. And mostly because its not a necessity of man or woman. If a person is so hard up, they still have their hand or can purchase a balloon doll.

@Bill_Lumbergh Yes Bill, so get that goat out from under your desk.

@mazingerz88 Simply put, it’s only moral if it could be supported by might? Who’s morals? It is like law, it has no teeth unless you can make it stick, and how would you do that if you had no might or power?

This was uncomfortable a long time ago :P

How about we not turn this thread into “why do some people think that Atheists have no morals” and just focus on the question at hand?

@Hypocrisy_Central I read through your answer and it was following until the end. You start as saying it’s illegal because it’s a sin but end up seeming to say that its just as okay as everything else… Are you for or against.

@Jellie Are you for or against. I am against bestiality because to me it is a sin, as other acts outside marriage are also., be it societal morality riding off the Bible or my spiritual upbringing. I am not going to try and rationalize and act that is sinful as OK, because I like doing those acts, but then say I don’t like having sex with animals, so that sinful sex act is immoral. That is just playing a moral shell game that is a paper tiger.

Wow, this is super long, and I haven’t taken the time to read everything, but the first thing that comes to mind for me is the possibility of transmitting disease. The human race has enough of that stuff already thank you, and we do not need more.

Just try sticking one in me, human.

@MrPORCUPINE Lol.

@snowberry condoms!

Haha!

@Jellie Lambskin condoms.

@Blackberry That’s two levels of wrongness… lol.

Let me try.
We use animals for their fur, for their meat/eggs, we make use of their strength to carry heavy stuff, we use them in sports, for their company, to show them and to show off, and we use them in science (vivisection).
Humans are not bred for their fur, for their meat/eggs, we are done with slavery (although some people in some countries might disagree), we don’t jump obstacles on humans’ backs.
We do show them, and show off with them and we use them in science (but there is usually consent in these happenings).
So…., I think this lead nowhere.

Let me think…......, ermmm, how’s this: we are covered totally with what the animals’ provides us with and the thing that isn’t covered yet (sex) we use humans for?

Lol @Blackberry !!! Screwing them with their own kind… shudder

Or another kind… like a sexual turducken.

@dappled_leaves @Jellie That’s the beauty…they won’t even know, mwahaha…....Ok just kidding.

@dappled_leaves Uhm…I have to google that…Edit: Oh good god….

@Blackberry don’t it hurt my brain.

@Jellie It does seem hypocritical that we’re ok with mistreating animals in one way (killing them for meat and fur) but not okay with mistreating them through bestiality.

We depended on meat and animal products for survival in the past, but now we may not need them anymore. Then again, I still like eating meat because it’s savory and nourishing. Sometimes there’s this voice in my head telling me I should go vegan, but I don’t listen to it.

Evolution has hardwired us to eat meat and to not have sex with animals. Nowadays, we don’t really need to eat meat anymore, so it’s kind of illogical to be against sex with animals but not against killing them. If someone who’s against bestiality wants to be morally in the right, they should probably go vegan, too. But people do hypocritical and illogical things all the time, and evolution is probably a pretty strong factor in that. I’m not saying that makes it ok to kill animals or that we should allow bestiality. But most of us would probably say yes to eating meat and no to bestiality.

Woah!!! I just found this dirty little bastard wacking off whilst reading through this thread. “What’s up cock!?!”

@ucme I’m just surprised he can do origami!

@Pandora I suspect those to be used tiss…....ewwwwws!

removed: not funny enough

slow chant: QOTD…...QOTD…..QOTD.. QOTD QOTD QOTD QOTD QQOTDQOTDQOTDQOTDOTD

It’s just Baaaaaaaaad! she said sheepishly.

Maybe it’s about our fear of the power of sex combined with our fear of losing our humanity. We like to think that what separates us from the other animals is our ability to control our impulses, to deny gratification in service to some higher standard. It’s the old “spirit vs. the flesh” model. Animals do whatever they feel the urge to do, but we humans are supposed to be above that. At the same time, we sense that it wouldn’t be terribly hard to strip that veneer of humanity away.

We have a long-standing cultural fear of sex because it’s such a powerful force that it can easily overwhelm our principled intentions. For eons, we have set up all kinds of barriers to easy access to sex. There’s a deep distrust of it; we fear that our defining distinction from the animals will be lost if we don’t enforce limits on sexual gratification. That was the moral of the biblical tale of Sodom and Gomorrah: that unrestrained sexuality would degrade humankind to the status of animals.

So humans have tried all kinds of ways to circumscribe what constitutes permissible sex. The idea has been that sex is somehow sanctified and rendered non-threatening when it occurs between consenting partners in a long-term, committed relationship. Anything else tends toward the animalistic. Sex with animals seems to particularly outrage our sense of being on a higher plane.

Outside of specific biblical prohibitions against it, our “culture’s” definition of right and wrong are for the most part arbitrary and only sometimes supported by strongly and widely believed rationalizations. Our legal system has or had many irrational laws based on very odd rationalizations. For example, in the USA, marijuana remains a category 1 drug based on the belief that it is a severely dangerous drug with no therapeutic or medical benefits whatsoever. Even cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin are no longer in the most restrictive category. Under Federal Law it is a felony for a Medical Doctor to prescribe it or for any person to but or possess it. Most of the justifications were explained in the popular propaganda film “Reefer Madness.”

The prohibition of the drug was racially based. It’s use in the early 2oth century was thought to be associated with “Negros.” The fear that crazed “Negros” hopped up on the killer drug marijuana would be likely to rape white women and commit other violent crimes underlay the “legal” prohibition of a widespread and readily available weed. The government required that users of marijuana pay for a permit or stamp. No such permits were issued!

Over the years, the drug lobby has quietly and privately pressured regulators to maintain the total restriction of the herb (“drug”). There is a considerable and growing body of anecdotal evidence that marijuana has a number of compelling medical benefits unmatched by any synthetic cannibanoids developed by drug companies.

In order to conduct proper controlled research requires the approval of over twenty regulatory agencies. This makes any efforts to do such research far too difficult because of all the delays and expenses just to get approval to begin.

Acts are illegal because for whatever reason, some behaviours are deemed immoral or dangerous to society even when there is no real evidence for the rationalizations underlying laws.

Laws are essentially opinions or beliefs backed up with sometimes severe sanctions no matter whether support there may be for such beliefs or opinions. Many people may agree with a large number of such laws, but that does not necessarily mean the laws make any real sense. The US racial segregation laws though little different from the Nazi racial purity laws, were broadly supported and enforced with despicable threats and violence despite the lack of any real justification whatsoever.

Many new Patriot Act laws and regulations make little sense either!

[mod says] This is our Question of the Day!

I did not know it’s illegal. Is it? If it is there’s no way you can stop it .. common lol .. might seem embarrassing but if the ones doing it are okay with it the rest will just turn their heads away.
Even if you take the Bible [Qu’ran states the same thing ] approach It is forbidden to do it… yet we have a lot of things that were forbidden and still people did them then they went all “I’m sorry God .. I’m cry you a river and since You can see into my heart that I am really sorry You’ll forgive me”.

Most want homosexuals to have the same rights as the rest. Why not let the ones enjoying their selves with animals to have the same rights too?

I just love it when people use the no consent argument.

It’s not like they consent to us taking their fur, stealing their milk and slaughtering them.

If it’s fine to kill and use them, why isn’t it fine to use them in a different capacity?

Yeah, consent is really the problem here.~

And we no longer need any animal products, not for the vast majority of our lives. We do not need furs, milk, or meat. Our use of them is a preference.

I don’t think it’s wrong because they can’t consent, I think that’s a preposterous argument. I don’t think it’s wrong because the Bible told me so. I wouldn’t do it because I have no inclination to do so, and I think it’s more than a bit weird to be attracted to something outside your species. If you have done it, fine. Whatever. We all have our shit.

I’m guessing it’s illegal only because of how religion has shaped our laws. That and most people are freaked right the fuck out.

Honestly, some people are sexually attracted to objects, to different body parts – like armpits and some people think the poodle down the street looks extra fluffy today. As long as I don’t have to participate, it’s whatever.

Oh, also. If the animal wasn’t at least a little into it the thing would fight back. Just go and try your way with a Doberman without any warning. A LOT of animals have sex for pleasure. A LOT. It isn’t that much of a leap that an animal would take advantage of a sexual outlet as readily as a human would. In fact I’d expect animals to be more willing then humans once they figure out the deal since they don’t have thousands of years of shame and guilt behind them for something as simple as eating meat on the wrong day, let alone getting your rocks off.

@asmonet, see my response above. Some people do not think it is fine to kill and use them.

@nikipedia I know, but the vast majority still do. Otherwise, our lives would be very different.

@asmonet

While I don’t like bestiality, personally it does kind of gross me out in the way other sexual acts I’m not all that interested in don’t, but I do agree with you that the inability to consent is spurious argument coming from people who wear leather and eat meat, etc. The animals certainly don’t consent to be imprisoned and then slaughtered and eaten or worn, or to be used for painful scientific experiments.

However, I have a real problem with your statement “Oh, also. If the animal wasn’t at least a little into it the thing would fight back.” Because, 1) you have no idea why the animal isn’t resisting and no way of assuming it is enjoying the act because it doesn’t resist and 2) that kind of thinking has been used and continues to be used to nullify and excuse the rape of women, if the woman, for whatever reason, does not fight back or resist the rape sufficiently enough to please the police, juries and society.

I see why you took those comments that way, and I know what you’re getting at.

I’m just saying, I’ve had more than one dog try to hump my leg or hump me. Just sayin’.

@asmonet O.K. The comment pushed one of my buttons and it got stuck in the “ON” position, resulting in a paragraph long rant, with subsections. I sprayed it with WD40 to prevent sticking. :-)

From a pure physical aspect if a woman just want to be filled, I suspect some larger breed of dogs have a bigger dumbstick then most men

@Hypocrisy_Central They can! We were attempting to breed my Maltese when I was a kid and I learned all sorts of things about dog peen. They have a totally differently shaped penis, it has a knot on the base that engorges once inside the vagina – it can be like, twice the circumference. If you’re not used to big wang, I’m sure it could do some damage. o.0

@asmonet I bet some female will get on all 4s and beckon Spot to make a real b**** of her and be surprised when it hurts like birthing a baby abd she can’t get free. Better have a bucket of cold water handy, but who would she use it? Ummmmm…..

So, I’m assuming you’d see it perfectly alright to take sloppy seconds after a dobie?..

Thanks @hypo and @asmonet I just threw up a bit in my mouth