Given that I’m someone who has volunteered time and money to animal rights organizations like the SPCA and greyhound rescue, you would think I would have some pretty clear-cut ideas about dog-fucking [“Doing the dog,” Sasha, June 30; “Canine sex shocker,” Letters, July 7]. As an animal lover who decries their abuse, it is unpleasant and confusing to have ambivalent feelings about certain types of bestiality. To address this publicly was not an easy thing to do, as glib as I may have come across. To have my mind opened even a sliver on this issue is unwelcome and scary, but I feel I’m required to admit that my findings were not as clear as I had hoped. As a sex columnist, I can’t ignore the 500-pound gorilla that is the history of bestiality in the room, and the words commonly offered by even the most liberal people to condemn it (“It feels wrong”) are inadequate.

People wrote me angry letters after this column was published—though less than you might imagine. They asked if I would give the same consideration to child molesters and rapists. Knowing far too many people who were sexually abused as children, as well as adult sexual assault survivors, I can say with great assurance I wouldn’t. Very rarely do I discuss a topic where my jury is still so out, but let’s get one thing clear: children and women are not dogs, and equating their sexual abuse to the sexual use of a willing canine is appalling. If dogs unequivocally deserve the same consideration as humans in this matter, should I then consider every horny dog’s unwanted sexual advances on me to be abuse as well? Seen this way, does this analogy seem ludicrous?

What can we say we know about animals and their emotions? We know they enjoy all kinds of pleasures we willingly indulge and, more often than not, it is entirely clear when they are unhappy or have been abused. We also imprint human characteristics and perspectives on them all the time. This tendency is all around us, from ads to cartoons to chats in dog park about little Chloe being in her terrible twos as she chews the crotch out of another pair of dirty underwear. We perceive ourselves as their caregivers, and caregivers don’t fuck their wards.

But again, I’ve had countless dogs hump my leg without my consent and countless dogs become sexually aroused as I patted them without intent (on that note, anyone had their dog try to join in while they’re having sex?). This has not been exclusive to male dogs, but in the case of the original letter, we’re talking specifically about male dogs, and illegal or not, most unfixed male dogs will try to fuck many things.

I can see why it’s unnatural—for lack of a better word—to encourage this activity with a human, but I struggle to see how it falls so tidily into the same realm as the sexual abuse of women and children. Particularly if the dog is willing, and actually attempts it on its own accord. Because of this, I don’t think it’s entirely principled or useful to say it’s categorically wrong and leave it at that. What is categorically wrong is forcing an animal into this against its will (according to some obviously self-serving stats on beastforum.com, only 10 per cent of dogs won’t do intercourse with a human), and actually, beastforum.com addresses this as an abuse issue.

For me, the core moral issue is this: is it wrong to take advantage of a dog’s willingness? For my part, I question people who want a partner that is so indiscriminate. Not so much a partner who can’t say no because it lacks choice, but won’t say no because it lacks discrimination. People on the message boards went apeshit when I implied it may be unhealthy to choose sex partners who offer nothing but unconditional love whenever you want it, but the fact that many people have cross-species sex willingly and have seemingly complicit dogs, along with the fact that many people fantasize about it, seemed something worthy of generating discussion.

For many years and in many countries, homosexuality was considered the same as bestiality: a crime against nature. The very fact that we have placed these two things wholesale in the same category shows how little incisive thought we have actually given either.

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