Dear Editor,

According to the BBC, the attempt by the German government to change the law that allows people to have sex with animals is being fiercely challenged by a least one bestiality rights group in that country. According to a male member of this group, being intimate with an animal is better than being with a woman!

While I must admit that I had a near-fatal laugh at that BBC report, the issue of bestiality, while seemingly revolting to many, raises some interesting questions. Top of the list is the question of its morality. Could having sex with animals ever be right?

That member of the pro-bestiality group that is challenging the German government is claiming that when animals are “loved” in that way, they show their approval in several ways. For instance, dogs show their approval by wagging their tails, both before and after the act.

Is the act of the dog wagging his tail really a sign of consent? These pro-bestiality activists seem to think so. However, others could claim that the dog may be wagging his tail for other reasons, which I would rather not get into.

Also, these activists assume that their animal partners have the ability to reason morally and they display this ability by showing signs of approval. However, we have very little evidence to prove that this is so. What if these animals are displaying these behaviours on instinct alone? Some animal rights activists would then consider this to be a form of rape.

Some of these pro-bestiality activists claim that what most of us “meat-eaters” do to these animals is worse than what they do. What could be worse, they argue, than killing these animals then having them for dinner? If eating them is good, how can mating with them be bad? I must admit that I would lose my appetite if someone mated with my dinner!

There was a time when it was the norm to consider some people as animals and not humans. During slavery, slaves were considered to be property, like animals, which were at the complete use of their owners, and some of them were really “used” by their owners. Even then, the issue of sex with slaves was considered taboo, to say the least!

If people who were once considered as animals during slavery could now be seen as people, what does the future hold for our view of animals? Morality is a very strange thing – its dynamism may one day make these pro-bestiality activists right!

Michael A Dingwall

michael_a_dingwall@hotmail.com