Abstract
Simple SummaryThe aim of the research is to examine the legal status of animals and the criminal law regulation of zoophilia (commonly referred to as “bestiality”) in 15 European countries. These two factors were chosen because they show how societies relate to animals through legislation, that is, how much animals are protected because of their inherent value, and not just because of the interests of humans. In the case of their legal status, the study examined the shift from viewing animals as a simple legal object to giving them special legal status. This research also examined criminal law definitions related to zoophilia. The results of compiling and comparing country rankings for zoophilia and legal status show that countries that place greater emphasis on regulating zoophilia are also more likely to have clearer rules in place regarding the legal status of animals. Switzerland is a positive example of both factors, while Italy faces many challenges in establishing specific legislation.The criminal legislation regarding zoophilia and the legal status of animals were examined in 15 European countries. With regard to zoophilia, answers to the following questions were sought: are sexual acts performed with animals and the possession and distribution of animal pornography criminally punishable? Several aspects of the legal status of animals were examined including: (1) is the protection of individual animals included in the constitution, (2) do animals have a special status beyond mere objects, (3) can we find specific legislative provisions that explicitly state that animals are not simply things, and (4) does the legal system also take the “dignity” of animals into consideration. The assessment of zoophilia and the legal status of animals resulted in two country rankings, which the authors compared with each other. The correlation was not significant (p = 0.3147). At the same time, countries with differentiated criminal legislation for zoophilia were also 3.62 times more likely to rank higher in terms of the legal status of animals. The Swiss regulations are exceptional in both respects, while at the other end of the list, Italy does not have specific legislative provisions for either aspect.
Highlights
Zoophilia or bestiality, that is, sexual attraction to animals is as old as mankind [1]; in antiquity it was already a known phenomenon [2,3]
In our study we only examined the provisions of criminal law [30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,46,47,48,49,50]. In some countries it is not the penal code itself but other legislation that provides for criminal sanctions in relation to animal cruelty and even zoophilia
The data collected from legal sources are summarized and converted to figures with binary coding in Table 1 for zoophilia and in Table 2 for legal status
Summary
That is, sexual attraction to animals is as old as mankind [1]; in antiquity it was already a known phenomenon [2,3]. Its acceptance has varied throughout the course of history, for example, a god in the shape of an animal seducing a woman is a recurrent motif of ancient mythology and depictions of zoophilia can be found in countless works of art [4]. Animals 2020, 10, 1024 initial acceptance, sexual relations with animals were severely punished. Most societies condemn zoophilia, but those attracted to animals form secret subcultures. In their opinion, zoophilia is a sexual desire that is different from the norm. They report love and respect for the animals and invoke the proper conditions in which animals are kept [6]
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