Papabear Chimes in on a Touchy Topic: Zoophilia

Papabear,

I'll start saying that I've been living with my grandparents since I was 10 years old (20 years old right now) and they've been always there for me whenever I needed support, love and affection. My relationship with my grandma is very good, she knows that I'm a furry, bisexual and have a foot fetish, which is good for her because she always has been telling me that no matter what choice I make, she'll be supporting me and respect my decisions.

We live and work on a farm. Recently I started to have this attraction for cows and bulls, meaning that sometimes I have fantasies about having sex with them; is there something wrong with me? what should I do? I feel like a freak about it because I really, really feel this sexual attraction for them and I'm afraid that maybe I'm falling into Zoophilia, I can't talk about this with my grandparents because I don't know how they will react if I say it.

Please Papa Bear, help me. 

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Hello, Fellow Furry,

I’m not listing your name here because of the nature of the topic, which is quite controversial. As Papabear’s readers know, I am very nonjudgmental about people’s sexual needs and preferences. I’ve always felt, in a very Wiccan way, that if you aren’t hurting anyone you should be allowed to do what you enjoy doing.

Okay, so, the hot topic of the day is zoophilia: the sexual desire for a species other than your own. As everyone knows, zoophilia is socially unacceptable in most societies, including American society (no duh, right?) Nevertheless, everyone knows it occurs; your living on a farm and desiring to have sex with a cow or bull is, actually, rather cliché, though the running joke is usually of a farmer having sex with a goat, sheep, or pig.

Is desire for another species abnormal? Is it deviant? Well, yes, in the sense that it is uncommon and it is a deviation from the norm. Consider, though, that people used to believe that homosexuality only occurred in Homo sapiens, yet after a little research scientists have discovered that it actually can be found in hundreds of species around the planet.

This led to my next thought: Could interspecies sex also occur in the wild? Thank goodness for the wonders of the Internet. After a little googling, I came across this fascinating article on the National Geographic site (a trusted source; I don’t just quote people who randomly post on the Web as if everything on there is true): http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070314-hybrids.html. The gist of the article is that it has been learned that interspecies sex occurs in nature. This can be seen as one of Nature’s many ways to genetically diversify species and try things out to see if they work. The thing is, however, that while the species discussed are technically different, they are not too distantly related (polar and brown bears, for instance, or two differently species of butterflies). The reason for this is that, at minimal, you will need to have the same number of chromosomes in the two species in order to have a birth.

Well, okay, that’s not really true, either. An example would be mules (mules result from male donkeys breeding with mares) and hinnies (a hinny is the result of a female donkey and male horse). Horses have 64 chromosomes and donkeys have 62; they can mate and create an offspring with 63 chromosomes, but the result is an animal that itself is sterile. It can live a normal life, but it will not reproduce. .... Wrong again! I found this article: http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/h/hybrid.htm which asserts that a female mule can actually be fertile!

When it comes to Nature, humanity’s sense of right and wrong is left at the door. The main goal of Nature, when it comes to plants and animals (interspecies breeding among plants, by the way, is even more common than in animals), is to create creatures that will live and thrive. As the environment changes, so do species change to adjust. The extinction of one species provides an opportunity for another. Life and evolution are in constant flux. Here’s another example: there are now scientists who believe that early Homo sapiens mated with Neanderthals and that our modern species may be the result.

So, what do we make of zoophilia, given the above? If we look at it objectively, it might just be one way for Nature to experiment with genes and see what happens. If a human mates with a cow, probably nothing will happen (although I do suggest a condom for sanitary purposes).

Humans are an interesting step in evolution, as we are actually actively trying to genetically alter plants and animals. This happens all the time in modern horticulture. There are even cases where the genes of an animal species have been inserted into those of a crop plant to help it resist disease and pests. Scientists have interbred carrots and rice so that people living in Asia, where rice is a staple, can get some of the vitamins commonly found in carrots. Furthermore, we have pigs in research facilities growing human organs now! Wow. Who knows, someday, we might actually see humans with genes from other animals, and furries (though they would probably still look very human) would actually come into existence.

This is all a long-winded way of explaining to you, dear writer, that what you are feeling, while not normal by society’s standards, is probably the result of an impulse planted into you at random by Mother Nature. One of Her little experiments, shall we say.

Your grandparents have been amazingly supportive and understanding of you. They have accepted everything else about you, and might even accept this. It’s not like you have actually done anything about it, and I would tell them so if you have that conversation, but you do have these feelings and maybe you would feel about it if you could talk to someone. Maybe show them this letter so they have a bit more understanding of it. It is, indeed, a bit like walking through a mine field, so you need to be careful. I will not judge you one way or another about the “morality” of it (as long as you don’t hurt yourself or an animal in the process) but it is a dicey issue. Quite so.

I hope the above helps. Let me know how it goes.

Hugs,

Papabear