Fathoming The Unfathomable Questions
This discussion piece was originally written for a furry audience, but is primarily a discussion about animal and human interactions, and has made its way around various furry and zoo sites over the internet before now finding its way here.
Firstly let me state that I am no expert on anything, however I have had a lot of experience with some things. I work, sleep, and breathe dogs. They are my life in a nutshell. What follows are some of the stranger and sexier things I have been asked over the years.
Let’s start with the down right absurd.
Q: Furries, zoophiles and pedophiles are all the same right?
A: Nooooo! Please lower the rifle you have pointing at the fox fursuiter in the corner with his fluorescent orange paws in the air.
Could the person in that suit be a zoophile or a pedophile? Sure they might be, but are they any more likely to be than any other person on the street? I would say it is very doubtful. There’s certainly no way of knowing just based off the fact that they’re in a fursuit, at the very least.
Given the secrecy and taboo nature of anything relating to sexuality in our society today, getting accurate numbers from research into the topic can be extremely difficult, as it relies on people willing to take part in the research and the honesty and forthrightness of those people taking part, to be completely truthful in their responses.
Putting aside all morality judgments for a second, each group are aroused by different things. While I’m not saying that individuals might not belong to multiple groups, to assume that because one person belongs to one group they belong to all of them would be wrong.
Q: But
A: Wrong!!!!! Next!
Q: Do Zoophiles only care about having sex with their animal?
A: If you ask this to a member of the zoophile community, you are most likely to hear a resounding “No!” There are many ways that someone may be attracted to animals. From the purely platonic “Brother from another mother” best friend you do everything with, and anything for. Through to a romantic and loving relationship that might also include sex, equivalent to a human couple in a relationship or whom are married. However, for someone who only cares about having sex with their animal, that dynamic would more commonly be surrounded by terms like bestialist, bestiality, or opportunistic zoosexuality, where the entire relationship is only about sex.
Genuine zoophilia or zoosexuality, is the love or concern for all the aspects of an animal’s life. Zoophilia, as defined by those in the community including myself, could best be described in simple terms as: “The love of an animal as a whole (not as a hole).”
In fact, many zoos seem to go above and beyond, seeing the general well-being of their animals as tangible and deeply important, while some non-zoos seem oblivious to why such things are worthy of even noticing. For the zoos I’ve known, the way they treat their dogs is beyond reproach and the animals are kept in very healthy condition and seem very happy. Dogs are very good at telling you if there is a problem with their body language, if you know what you’re looking for when they interact with the humans in their lives. Trust me, on a few occasions I have seen a reaction from a dog that worried me greatly: animals do have some ability to tell on their owners if they’re being mistreated, and that’s if the owner doesn’t beat them to it and tell on themselves. In the most extreme case I said to a guy “Jack is a really nice dog, if you ever want to part with him let me know.” To which he replied, “You can have the mongrel now if you want, he’s nothing but trouble.” He then tossed me the lead and walked outside to climb into a nice shiny new BMW, leaving me with an unpaid bill and a dog to rehome. But in the circumstances I was still happy with the outcome. Some people just shouldn’t have animals in the first place.
Q: So if an adult dog and a young child have similar IQ levels how can it not be abusive to have sex with them?
A: How many children do you know that go through puberty at around 7 months old, and are typically fully mature by 18 months of age in the case of your average dog. So let’s get that point straight for starters, we are talking about an adult animal who has finished growing and is both sexually, emotionally and mentally mature for their species. To engage in sexual contact with the young of any species humans included can be potentially harmful to that individual, so don’t do that!
So now we have the age aspect out of the way, let’s talk about IQ: Not all of us are blessed with high IQ, does that mean that an adult who has a low IQ does not deserve love and to be able to fulfil with a partner any emotional or sexual desires that “they” have? No of course it doesn’t mean that! If you have the desires and a willing partner it really doesn’t matter how smart you are perceived to be based on some biased test. “Biased?” You might ask. Yes biased because IQ test are determined by social factors on what is considered to be the basis of intelligence given what would be reasonably expected to be known within your society. A person from a remote nomadic tribe, may score atrociously compared to that of a person from a large bustling city.
Does that make the tribes person stupid? Well let me put it this way, if you took these two individuals and inserted them into the other’s life, chances are they would both struggle. The tribesman may not know the safest way to cross a busy road is at a set of traffic lights, or that you need to press a button on a pole to request a break in the traffic to cross safely. Equally the person from the city may not be able to look at the horizon and know that a sudden pick up of wind before a large thunderhead is actually suggesting a dangerous sand storm is building and shelter should be sought immediately. Both of these people might be very smart and adept in their own environments, but might require assistance when trying to navigate in the other’s environment.
So because animals and humans basically come from two adjacent worlds, trying to compare their intelligence via IQ is not a fair measure of either’s abilities. A dog may never be capable of doing high level calculus, while a human is never going to be able to mentally process a minute scent they smelled with their nose, to detect cancer in a patient before any outward physical symptoms are apparent. Both humans and animals have their strengths and weaknesses.
However while humans and animals have their differences that does not negate their wants and needs for physical contact and intimacy. Unlike a loving human showing affection to their “low IQ” human partner though, people’s reaction in the case of the dog showing affection is quite different. As in polite human society they are not allowed to show their true feelings and desires. If a male dog humps a plush toy or your leg or a female flags her tail for you when she’s in heat, these behaviours are in fact perfectly normal from the dog’s point of view. After all, we bring animals into our lives and take the place of their natural pack or herd. Is it really surprising then that they might see us as a fitting partner to share their love and sexual desires? So they quite reasonably want us to help them relieve the itch that they find they have with a willing member of their pack.
Sadly the usual human response to the animal trying to show their human what they desire, results in being yelled at or whisked off to the vet to get the offending body parts removed so such behaviour stops.
Q: So will yelling at my dog stop him being inappropriate?
A: Yes it will probably stop him at that precise second, but may not work long term, depending on the motivation behind the dog’s actions.
In the case of pent up sexual desire, here is something that no one ever considers: Is giving Fido a quick hand job to get his rocks off and leave him happy better or worse than yelling at him so he slinks away to the corner, not understanding what he did wrong? He then starts to lick his balls and slightly protruding pink shaft which begins to cheer him up once more, until he gets yelled at again for being disgusting and chased outside the house.
So much of sexual issues these days has far more to do with societal baggage than anything else.
Take clips you see on YouTube for example, a lot of people just don’t know how to handle seeing animals being sexually aware, such as a bear giving himself a blowjob or zebra belly slapping to relieve sexual tension. The humans just point and laugh at them. I myself find this a little rude. I mean how would you like it if a bunch of animals stood there watching you masturbate and then started laughing at you.
Q: Will Neutering my boy stop him humping everything in sight?
A: Odds are it will dramatically reduce his desire to do so. However if he has been doing it for a while it can be a behaviour that is habitual or frankly may just feel really good to him to do.
There are a number of reasons a dog might hump apart from sexual desire for your leg. Case in point, a woman brought in a young male to see if we could help because he kept humping everything. She got him desexed but that only seemed to make him worse. It turned out he was extremely nervous and stressed about the new house and neighbourhood they had moved into, and by dropping his testosterone levels it just made things worse. We helped him with some desensitizing techniques like playing truck air brakes (one of the things that was freaking him out) on a continuous loop at a low volume for a day. We identified 11 separate triggers for his humping behaviour. By actually taking the time to listen to what the dog was telling us, rather than merely trying to suppress the resulting behaviour without addressing its causes; we were able to achieve something removing of his testicles could not do. We brought peace to his mind, and two weeks later he was sleeping in front of a window content to let the world do its thing without him being scared by it any longer.
Q: The Bible says I shouldn’t have sex with animals, but I really want to get fucked by my dog. Is it right to have sex with my dog?
A: I’m no religious scholar but I don’t think animal sex was part of the big Ten Commandments. Although there was all that coveting of neighbours’ stuff including animals. I can’t tell you if it is right or wrong for you to do. All I can say is for me God is love and if you truly love one of God’s creatures, should it really matter what the species is they belong to?
In a nutshell, in the case of animals for me it would come down to the enjoyment of the activity by the animal. if the animal doesn’t enjoy it then don’t do it! If you can’t tell if the animal is enjoying it, then again don’t do it and spend more time with your four legged friend. You really should be able to tell when an animal in your family/pack is enjoying something, vs when they are not but are just doing it because they want to please the pack leader.
So in short as long as both parties in a relationship both get pleasure from the relationship and don’t walk away in pain or stressed in any way about what took place; I say who cares what the rest of the world thinks.
So I have two simple rules that I think we should all live by:
- To your own heart be true.
- Do no harm.
Q: Can an animal really consent to sex?
A: Ah yes, this old chestnut. I would say that consent could be assumed in a non verbal world as an action that leaves no doubt what the animal was saying. Such as (and forgive me if I bring everything back to dogs, it’s what I know) if a dog completely out of the blue brought you their lead, dropped it on your lap as you’re sitting on the couch watching TV, and rested a front paw on your knee.
Chances are they are probably not asking to be fed.
One of the zoos I mentioned that I know once told me a story about his Rotty. Apparently the dog has socks put on his front paws when they get jiggy with it. Well one night this guy hears this big crash come from his bedroom so he went to investigate and walks in to find a drawer pulled completely out of the dresser with socks and jocks scattered all over the floor and a Rotty sitting happy as you please on the bed with his “special socks” laying between his front paws and showing more than a little pink between his hind legs. Now in my opinion that is definitely consent. To be honest when I heard this story I split my sides laughing, because I’ve known this dog since he was a puppy and some of the things he has done over the years convinces me, he knows his own mind and can be very stubborn if your wishes don’t agree with his, and this really sounded like something he would do. Personally I have seen Harley fully erect in an exam and frankly I would run for the hills if he ever presented me with those special socks of his, nothing as large as he is packing will be getting anywhere near my ass thank you very much.
If you were to say gently rub a dog’s sheath or vagina while they were laying down and they got up and walked away, that is an emphatic NO! Animals may not speak any human language but they can say plenty if you only care to listen.
Q: Isn’t all sex with an animal just rape?
A: No! However animals can be raped in the same way humans can be, by ignoring their wishes or desires. But to say or imply that all sexual contact is rape, is close minded no matter what the species. When done with care and respect for your partner’s physical mental and emotional state, sex can be and is enjoyable between humans, so why would you think it would be any different between other species? I have, in my work, just like countless vets and farmers etc., had to extract semen from many males for storage or AI. Now if the person collecting the semen doesn’t get any sexual pleasure from the task does that make it better? The animal doesn’t get much choice in the matter so strictly speaking it is non-consensual. I always try to do it carefully, handling the animal’s genitals gently, and do my best to put the male at ease. A dog I extracted semen from recently was wagging his tail bouncing around and licking me after we had finished. Do you really want me to think I distressed or hurt this dog because he didn’t ejaculate into a bitch to continue the species? He was just happy getting his rocks off. Sex can be fun for both parties if done right and with respect of your partner’s boundaries.
Q: Don’t animals just have sex to procreate?
A: Do humans just have sex to procreate? I know for many everything is black and white and they believe that’s how it should be, but wherever I look shades of grey is all that I see. (if I can badly mangle Billy Joel’s lyric.)
Humans are just a self appointed superior species, compared to every other animal wandering around this blue marble of a planet. But when it comes to sex are humans really that special? In non-human animals there are documented cases of homosexuality, masturbation, and even sexual relations with other species outside their own ie: a Maremma who was caught screwing the sheep he was supposed to be protecting from predators (well he had to pass the time somehow). Pretty much every sexual orientation and several fetish like behaviours can be found in other species if you take the time to look hard enough. I once saw a Cocker Spaniel who loved sniffing and licking other dogs’ paws. Did she have a foot/paw fetish? The Malamute she lived with didn’t share her love for paw licking and quickly learned to tuck his paws in before settling in to sleep. Sadly we didn’t get the chance to look for any other reason for her intense interest in other dogs’ paws, because she was tragically struck by a car and is no longer with us.
Q: Is it ok to fuck my dog in the ass?
A: Most dogs will not like a penis or any other large object shoved up their tail hole. There are of course exceptions to every rule. For example I know two dogs that were hard core gay and one dog used to pound his canine friend every other day, but the dog on the bottom didn’t really seem to mind most the time. However we still had to intervene to stop their activity as they would never use Lube and the bottom dog’s bottom would suffer a bit and require antiseptic cream to be applied.
Receiving anal penetration would be far from the most favourite sex act of a lot of males human or otherwise, but there are other forms of sex you know. So where there’s a will there’s a way as they say, it would not be impossible to find an activity enjoyed by both participants. No matter who you are with, human or not, it is always a learning curve to establish what you partner likes or doesn’t like. The main physical difference with animals is often a size difference, which causes issues with parts fitting, and I’m not just talking about the human always being bigger. Dogs come in many different sizes, therefore can be greater or lesser endowed in what they are packing, than your average human, and an extreme mismatch can do harm to one of you, just like disregarding the other’s wishes and forcing yourself on them can do harm also.
Well that’s all for now. Comments are welcome but if you don’t agree with something I have said please be polite about it. The above is only my opinion I am not trying to push any point of view onto anyone else, mind you if you’re still reading at this point I must have done something right :p
Either that or you’ve been building up enough flame to melt an entire dragon’s cave of gold. Wanders off into the kitchen to wrap myself in a flame proof blanket and grab a fire extinguisher, just to be safe.
Article written by HugDoggy (February 2023)
Find him on ZooCommunity at https://zoocommunity.org/user-593.html
Questions, comments or concerns? Check out the discussion thread over on ZooCommunity, or join our Discord server!
