What do you guys think about these anti-bestiality laws that seem to be cropping up all over the place? These days it seems to be popular to say that bestiality (cross-species sex involving humans) is "animal abuse" (what a rather silly thought). If all cases of bestiality are to be understood as being animal cruelty then shouldn't pet ownership be considered cruelty as well? Why does the sexual aspect make a difference here? I'm not entirely sure what I think about it. I feel that there are often instances of bestiality (often "fence-hopping" although sometimes it would be that people have recorded their own acts or they were discovered in some other way) that will end up on the news... And the whole thing is treated like this great evil in the land has occurred etc.
And I've heard about some guy in the 1990s or early 2000s who was supposedly taking revenge on zoophiles for not accepting him because he was essentially a zoosadist. He was apparently the first individual to begin pushing for anti-bestiality laws without law makers knowing his full back story and that was how some anti- legislation got onto the books when there probably was nothing in law forbidding the act prior to his work. Originally there would have been "anti-sodomy" laws I believe it was way back but these would have been biblically based and would have been taken out of the law when our society began to become more secular (which is odd because the founding fathers of America were not Christian they were Deist....)
I guess I'm wondering about what is the inspiration for these anti-laws.
More often than not, an anti-bestiality bill is simply a quick way to gain political power. It drafts up a bill that most people would never question, and those who do question get slammed, hard. There is likely not to be any political opposition to anti-bestiality bills because it practically spells the end of one's political career to do so.
Oh that is a great point that you have there, thanks!
All it takes is one angry reactionary in a position of power to make a law. My favorite example is Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona, who got offended when a fire chief in his district got caught with a sheep and couldn't be prosecuted. He then lobbied the state legislature with a sob story about a kidnapped and maimed 10 pound toy poodle, and when they made bestiality a felony, he did a few sting operations on craigslist to catch some idiots who advertised their willingness to pay for dog sex on there, just to show that the law was worth. There are plenty of other reasons to hate Joe Arpaio, but for our purposes this is enough.
I find it always very creepy when a law is introduced that can put people in prison and destroy their lives and there is no discussion about it at all. When there's no reason provided why it's needed or what exactly it protects that is not already protected. Whether it is supported by any evidence whatsoever...
Just imagine what other minorities these people would criminalize without batting an eyelid.
And then people actually support this practice and say stuff like: "I bet it's only legal because nobody has thought to make it illegal so far." Holy fuck, people, you don't put people in prison for no reason. There needs to be a good argument for a law!
To be fair though, that often IS why there are no bestiality laws and why they get passed so much. A lot of the response to people trying to pass bestiality laws, both publicly and officially is "Wait, we didn't already have that?"
There are some areas that will discuss is and then it tends to be put on hold, because, well if you can't prosecute this under animal cruelty, than wtf are you protecting the animals from? ...That is, until the outcry of public opinion and negative attention forces the law in place.
People like to pick a 'bad guy' and put all their fears and hatred towards it. People think sex is extra special above all other acts (even though mostly the only really major difference between sex and tickling is one is designed for procreation). So when they see something that is both "gross" (which do not get me started about how gross does not exist) and something that is "sexual" automatically it is a defiling of this somehow most sacred act, and must be severely punished. Long story short: Humans believe in some crazy things.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scapegoat
Its easy votes for the right wing voters
Sometimes, a bipartisan vote. Animal activists (PETA) love this stuff.
yeah but everyone hates PETA