Zoophilia an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation

Zoophilia – an Unrecognized Problem in Animal Welfare Legislation
the actual extent, the effective magnitude of zoophilia can only be guessed. Aggravating cir-
cumstances are that many, if not most, cases remain undiscovered.
For lack of current numbers, today’s specialized literature mostly falls back on the
data of the so-called Kinsey-Report, with which the assumption that sexual acts with animals
were a rare phenomenon in our society was already impressively disproved in the middle of
the last century. The study conducted by Zoologist and social researcher Alfred C. Kinsey and
his associates, between 1938 and 1947, was based on 20'000 interviews about the sexual be-
havior of North-American men and women. This study brought to light that eight per cent of
the male and three and a half percent of the female total population of the USA, respectively,
had had at least one zoophilic contact. Among the rural population, which had direct access to
animals, 17 per cent of the men surveyed, gave accounts of intimate experience with animals
leading to an orgasm (Kinsey, man 621). In some communities, the quotas of up to 65 per
cent were determined (Kinsey, man 622). In the urban population, however, the percentage
was a much lower one: up to four per cent depending on the level of education – possibly due
to lack of respective options – whereas zoophilic contacts took place in particular during tem-
porary sojourns to the country (Kinsey, man 621). Although the total percentage already
comes up to the immense figure of approximately eight million US-citizens, it can only be a
mere fraction of the data because one has to take into account that many people concealed
such experiences because of it being outlawed under pain of punishment at the time of the
survey as well as moral reasons and a sense of shame.
Even though the Kinsey-Report is sixty years old and its generally blurred terminology
was often erroneously interpreted and misunderstood (Rosenbauer 36), its figures are still
considered the most comprehensive today . Subject to the aforementioned reservations and the
certainty, that many factors have changed in the meantime, the study allows drawing at least
certain conclusions to today’s conditions. Thus one can assume that zoophilic actions today, –
in America as in Europe – are just as widespread as they were in Kinsey’s times. However, it
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