The Secret Life of Zoophiles
2000 Hani Miletski (M.S.W., Ph.D. – psychotherapist and an AASECT-certified sex
therapist based in Bethesda, MD) This article is excerpted from a book she is currently
writing concerning her study on bestiality and zoophilia.
It all started when my client, Ill call him Christian, told me he could not find any literature
about bestiality/zoophilia. I had been seeing him, in my psychotherapy practice, because
he could not stop having sex with dogs. He was a very religious man and believed it was
wrong to have sexual relations with anything other than women, and even then, only when
you are married to that woman. However, he could not control his urges to have sex with
the dogs in his neighborhood.
I asked the librarian at the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United
States (SIECUS) to conduct a literature search for me (at that time I was not connected to
the Internet), which resulted in very disappointing findings. There was nothing out there
about bestiality and zoophilia other than one autobiography by Mark Matthews: The
Horseman: Obsessions of a Zoophile. In this book, the author describes his struggles to
accept the fact that he loved his horse more than he loved his wife. He portrayed himself as
an intelligent, professional individual who was sexually attracted to horses and eventually,
after admitting to himself his love for his horse, he married his horse.
I was intrigued with the idea that there are people who may be sexually attracted to
animals and may even prefer animals as sex partners to humans. I decided to dedicate my
doctoral dissertation to this topic and began to study bestiality and zoophilia.
This was not an easy thing to do. Some of my colleagues and friends thought I was out of
my mind: “You are going to study what?” Some concluded there was something wrong
with me, that I needed therapy and/or that I myself was having sex with animals. The man
I was dating at the time could not even handle discussing the topic and we ended up going
our separate ways (it wasnt a good relationship anyway). But, there were others who
admired me and encouraged my controversial investigation and I was set to be (maybe) the
first researcher to study this virtually unknown phenomenon and to conduct a large scale,
professional study on bestiality/zoophilia.
With greater focus and effort, I spent days at the library of the Institute for Advanced Study
of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., and
at the library of the National Institute for Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland. I
found a specialized magazine, The Wild Animal Revue, which provided me with much
information about this topic and its editor was so kind as to lend me several rare books to
help with my study. I bought other rare books in a little store in New York, and the Internet
was a source of abundant information about bestiality and zoophilia as well.
I ended up finding many books and articles whose authors mention and sometimes even
discuss bestiality and zoophila. Many authors suggest that human beings have had sexual
relations with animals since the dawn of history and throughout the world (in some
countries more than in others). These authors assert that sexual relations with animals has
been practiced, thought about, dreamed of and has emerged as myth, fairytale, folklore,
literature, painting and sculpture (Cauldwell, 1948; Dumont, 1970; Kinsey et al, 1948;
Kullinger, 1969; Masters, 1962). None of them, however, provides an in-depth picture into
the lives and behaviors of the people who engage in sexual relations with animals. Many
authors volunteer their opinions and discuss humans sexual relations with animals as
though they are an authority on the subject. Their opinions, however, are often conflicting
and cause much confusion to the reader.
Conducting this extensive literature review diminished any lingering doubts about the
necessity for a study on bestiality and zoophilia. As my literature review reveals, scientific
studies on the motivations for engaging in bestiality/zoophilia and studies describing the
sexual, social and mental health profile of individuals involved are very scarce. The few
related studies described above (Kinsey et al., 1948; Kinsey et al., 1953; and Hunt, 1974)
proved outdated and limited in their findings since they did not focus on the issue of
bestiality/zoophilia. Peretti Rowans study (1983) was more focused but did not distinguish
between bestiality and zoophilia and only six variables were explored. Donofrios recent
study (1996) focused on zoophiles, however the small number of participants (8) limited
his findings.
The major void of knowledge regarding bestiality/zoophilia bothered me. I believed, and I
still do, that as clinical sexologists and psychotherapists, we need to be equipped with a
carefully researched base of knowledge in order to understand the phenomenon and the
individuals involved. As professionals helping those who struggle with and experience
ego-dystonic feelings about bestiality and zoophilia, it is important that this research be
available and on-going.
To this end, I decided to conduct an exploratory study in an attempt to gather data on a
sexual behavior under-studied and misunderstood. I also wanted to better understand the
people who engage in sexual relations with animals and their motivations for doing so.
The idea that some people may be sexually attracted to animals, to the point of preferring
animals to humans as sex partners, fascinated me. The new term, coined by the “zoo”
community (“zoo” is basically a shortcut for “zoophile”) on the Internet: “zoosexuality,”
implies a sexual orientation towards animals. Stasya (1996), Tanka (1995), Shepherd
(1996) and Fox (1994) on the Internet agreed with this definition. And Donofrio (1996)
reports that the concept of zoophilia, being a sexual orientation, was supported by his
doctoral study. He, therefore, suggests using a scale resembling Kinseys sexual orientation
scale which was also offered by Blake (1971). Donofrios model suggests that those who
have no interest whatsoever in sexual contact with animals would appear at the Zero point
of the scale. Those individuals whose sole sexual outlet and attraction are animals would
be assigned the Six position. Along that continuum, between these two extremes, would be
individuals who include animal sexual contact in their fantasy, or have had incidental
experiences with animals, have had more than incidental contact with animals, place their
sexual activity with animals equal to that involving humans, prefer animal contact but
engage in more than incidental contact with humans, and those who engage primarily in
contact with animals with only incidental human sexual contact.
I therefore conceptualized my basic research question to be: “Is there a sexual orientation
towards non-human animals?” I adapted the definition of sexual orientation” from
Francoeur (1991) in his discussion of homosexuality, heterosexuality and bisexuality.
According to this definition, sexual orientation consists of three interrelated aspects: (1)
affectional orientation — who or what we bond with emotionally; (2) sexual fantasy
orientation — who or what we fantasize having sex with; and (3) erotic orientation — with
whom or what we prefer to have sex.
Now I had to find subjects. I had no idea where to begin. I had my client but that was
definitely not enough. I started talking to anyone willing to listen. I placed an ad in The
Wild Animal Revue. I posted an ad on a message board at the Institute for Advanced Study
for Human Sexuality. I sent a letter to Mark Matthews, the founder of the Zoophiliac
Outreach Organization. I placed an ad in Sexual Science, the Society for Scientific Study
of Sexuality newsletter. I placed an ad in Contemporary Sexuality, the American
Association for Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) newsletter. Most
importantly, I posted an Internet ad on the alt.sex. bestiality bulletin board.
When I went to AASECTs annual meeting in Baltimore, Maryland, in June 1996, I posted
an ad on the message board. A prominent figure in the sexology field (from another
organization) was offended by the ad and ordered it down. This sad incident, however,
ended on a positive note: The president of AASECT at that time, Dr. Judy Seifer, formally
apologized and became one of my doctoral advisors. Also, before the ad was taken down,
it was photographed by a journalist and ended up in the Baltimore City Paper June 19,
1996 issue, as part of an article by Motoyama about the above conference.
All the ads had the same message:
“I need volunteers… Anyone who has ever had sexual relations with an animal… To fill out
an anonymous questionnaire. I am a doctoral student who is doing her dissertation research
on bestiality/zoophilia. I believe this topic is understudied and that it is important to shed
some light on this phenomenon. This will be especially significant for people who struggle
with this issue and for their psychotherapists. Please call me at (my phone number)
weekdays and ask for Hani. I appreciate any help I can get. Thanks!”
One day I received a phone call from a woman, Ill call her Beverly. She told me she heard
about me and my study from a friend on the Internet and she would like to help. I was
