Reflections on the Anti-Contact Zoo

Have you seen those anti-contact zoos around at all? If you're not in certain spaces in the community, there's a chance that you haven't. The community is already pretty segregated, and they exist mostly in the Twitter and Discord space. They're folks that identify as zoos, and who use our labels. Things like the zeta, or the zoo flag. But, when confronted, they eagerly throw their hands up and say "Sex with animals? No way! That's awful! I might be attracted to animals, but actually doing anything with them is wrong!" 
 
 
I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to these people. On one hand, I'm here for the zoos, and by definition, anyone attracted to animals is a zoosexual. If you're gay but never have sex with men, that doesn't mean that you aren't gay. You're just making a choice within your attraction. But, at the same time, it's also a little frustrating in ways that can be a little nebulous. It's not like they're hurting me by saying that they don't support bestiality, I mean.. Most people don't currently support bestiality. But also, they're doing so as a part of the community that I'm trying to help grow to help people see that loving animals isn't wrong. 
 
 
And like, in some ways I get it. These people tend to be on the younger side, and also tend to be newer to the community. I get that for some people there can be a bit of a discovery curve. If you realize that you're attracted to animals, and you're someone with a lot of self-confidence or who has a strong sense of right and wrong, it's not that hard to understand how someone could come to the conclusion that they want to embrace their zoosexuality as a concept, but not actually challenge the actual logic around actual relationships. If you accept that sex with animals is wrong as a given, but still feel like you want to represent your sexuality, it's easy to end up as someone who adopts the symbolism of the community, but not necessarily the bigger ideas. 
 
 
But that doesn't really stop it from being a little annoying. In my eyes, I kinda see it like this. Imagine if you were running a booth talking about veganism, and someone shows up in a hat that says "plant based" and a shirt that says "meat is murder" and they build a booth right next to you. At first, you're excited to have an ally in the fight against something you see as bad, but then once they're all set up they pull out a steak and start eating it. Their booth might be about veganism, but they like the concept of veganism, not the actual practice. 
 
 
This isn't necessarily a perfect comparison, but I'm trying to get at the heart of what it feels like. To me, anti-contact zoos are even more frustrating to see than anti-zoos or just normal folks criticizing my content, because it feels like it's someone that should be an ally.
 
 
It doesn't help that these anti-contact zoos tend to have a pretty strong reaction when confronted. Of course, people outside the community, and other niche communities, aren't really going to understand or really even care about what "anti-contact" even is. They see the zeta, or posts about finding dogs hot, and they decide that's wrong. And when these anti-contacts are confronted, in an effort to show just how against zoosexuality they are, they usually have very extreme replies. They go above and beyond to talk about how it's just a fantasy, and how contact zoos are evil, and terrible, and abusive, and how they're so morally pure compared to those people. I'm exaggerating a little bit here, but only a little. Anti-contact zoos are trying to play both sides, getting support from zoos who resonate with finding animals attractive, but also from folks who are against relationships with animals, and the only real way to do that is to both say things that are extremely zooey, while also swearing up and down that you don't believe in animal consent. 
 
 
That said, I don't really mean this to come off like an attack against those people. Like I said, in a lot of ways I do get it. So, if there are any "anti-contact" zoos that are reading this, or if anyone reading this is friends with them, here's what I would ask. Have a conversation with a zoosexual that is in a relationship with an animal. You've been fed this propaganda about how immoral relationships with animals are your whole life. Have you ever had the chance to stop and consider the other side? Because I promise that the issue is definitely not as clear cut as some like to make it out to be. If you really believe that sex with animals is wrong, then it should be no trouble to have someone challenge that belief right? DM me, or someone else that knows what they're talking about, and let's chat. 
 
 
There's one more group that I want to address as well, and this one is a little more.. complicated. There are people out there with anti-contact zoo accounts who do the whole "bestiality is evil" thing whenever they're confronted. And yet, I see them all the time liking my tweets talking about my animal partner, or about the magazine, or about any of the other projects I run. For those folks, the term anti-contact feels more like they're trying to use it as a shield. Something they can point to if they're ever exposed to be able to say "hey look, I'm making my stance clear right here!", even if they really do actually believe in the zoo cause. To those folks, have you thought about using the term "non-contact" instead? Anti-contact implies opposition. You are *against* something. Non-contact on the other thing is more passive. You don't personally do contact, but you aren't necessarily against it. And here's the best part. Anyone who you're trying to impress by showing how against contact you are isn't going to understand the nuance here. They're either going to hate you for being attracted to animals either way regardless of your contact stance, or they're going to accept your shield. The difference between "Anti" and "Non" is mostly a semantic one, and you can always just shrug and say you thought that was just the word to use. Non-contact is the way to keep doing what you're doing without also being against the greater goals of the zoo community. 
 
 
Anyway, just some thoughts. There have been pockets of anti-contact zoos that have popped up here and there plenty in the time I've been a part of the community, and I wanted to finally get my thoughts down about them because I don't think that label is something that's ever going to go away. 
 
 
People can do whatever they want at the end of the day, I'd just rather not have enemies wearing the color of friends. But, people can choose to do what they want to do, I'm going to go back to making out with my dog. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Article written by Tarro (May 2026) 
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