Zoophilia

ZETA logo

Zoophilia is a paraphilia centered around the sexual attraction of some humans towards non-human real animals, including in some instances the desire to engage in physical expressions of such, or to the specific paraphilia (i.e., the atypical arousal). The term zoophile serves as the autonym for the community of persons who experience the condition to any degree.

Etymology and symbols

Zoophilia flag

The term zoophilia was introduced into the field of sexuality research in the German psychiatrist and author Krafft-Ebing's book, Psychopathia Sexualis (1886), who described several cases of "violation of animals (bestiality)", as well as "zoophilia erotica", which he defined as a sexual attraction to animal skin or fur. The term is derived from the combination of two nouns in Greek: ζῷον (zṓion, meaning "animal") and φιλία (philia, meaning "(fraternal) love"). Krafft-Ebing also coined the uncommon term zooerasty for the paraphilia of exclusive sexual attraction to animals.

It is a favored term in popular culture (and for those certain people within the furry fandom) as an alternative to the term bestiality, because it stresses orientation over acts, and is usually regarded as less prejudicial.

The term Zooey is also used to describe this paraphilia, content (media), or persons involved (zoophile).

Zoosexual

The term zoosexual was proposed by Hani Miletski in 2002 as a noun synonymous with "zoophile" (the person), while the adjectival form of the word – as, for instance, in the phrase "zoosexual act" – may indicate sexual activity between a human and an animal. The derivative noun "zoosexuality" is sometimes used by self-identified zoophiles in both support groups and on internet-based discussion forums to designate sexual orientation manifesting as sexual attraction to animals.

Symbols

Especially on social media, zoophiles use various symbols/emotes to identify themselves to other zoophiles; This includes the common ζ (Zeta, the first letter of the Greek "ζῷον" [animal]) symbol or the 🐾 paw print emoji (normally red). Paw print tattoos (on skin or fursuiters' suit fur) are commonly mistaken as a zoophile identifier.

Zoophiles vs. Bestialists

A Zeta pin, used in public by some zoophiles

Although sexual, not all zoophiles choose to engage in the described sexual contact, but for those who do, they state that they are lovers of animals and that the sexual act, when it is done, is an extension of a deeper emotional and perhaps spiritual relationship with the animal, similar to the sexual expression between human companions.

They use this emotional definition to separate themselves from beastialists (beasties), which they claim their sole interest is in the act itself (Bestiality).

Zoophilia as a sexual orientation

While zoophilia is classified as a paraphilia by the APA, many zoophiles conceptualize it instead as their sexual orientation, referring to their attraction as zoosexuality. While most studies analyze zoophilia as a paraphilia or within a criminal context, some scholars have argued in favor of the idea that zoophilia can be conceptualized as a sexual orientation.

In his study of 8 zoophiles, Donofrio (unpublished doctoral dissertation, 1996) suggested that zoophilia may not be a clinically significant problem, and reported that the concept of zoophilia being a sexual orientation was supported by his doctoral study. He suggested using a scale resembling the Kinsey scale to measure sexual interest in humans vs. animals.

More recently, sexologist Hani Miletski surveyed 93 zoophiles, and concluded that zoophilia fits Robert Francoeur's conceptualization of sexual orientation (affectional orientation, sexual fantasy orientation, and erotic orientation).

Zoophilia and furry

It is a common misconception/stereotype that all people in the furry fandom are zoophiles. Though a significant proportion of erotic furry artwork and stories involve beings with animal characteristics having sex with each other or with humans, it should be noted that the participants are usually anthropomorphic beings. While some furries are zoophiles, the two terms are not synonymous, and most furries do not have any sexual interest in animals in real life, though some may roleplay otherwise in a fantasy scenario.

As most furries express some degree of sexual attraction towards anthropomorphic beings, several surveys have also asked furries about zoophilia. To date, however, no surveys have asked about bestiality.

Below is a review of the estimates on the prevalence of zoophilia among furries:

Year	Title	Results	Sample size	Researcher(s)	Ref(s).
2001	The Sociology of Furry Fandom	2% stated they were zoophiles.	350	Rust, David J.
2008	The Furry Sociological Survey	17% stated they were zoophiles.	278	Evans, K.
2008	Annual Furry Survey	18.4% stated they were zoophiles.	7,024	Osaki, Alex
2009	2009 Furry Survey	13.9% stated they were zoophiles.	9,024	Osaki, A.
2010	2010 Furry Survey	13.6% stated they were zoophiles.	4,895	Osaki, A.
2011	2011 Furry Survey	13.3% stated they were zoophiles.	4,365	Osaki, A.
2012	2012 Furry Survey	14.9% stated they were zoophiles.	3,267	Osaki, A.
2019	Furscience 2019 Studies	6.9% stated having zoophilia as a kink or fetish.	827	Roberts, S., et al.
2019	The “Furry” Phenomenon: Characterizing Sexual Orientation, Sexual Motivation, and Erotic Target Identity Inversions in Male Furries	46.7% reported a non-zero attraction towards animals.	334	Hsu, K. & Bailey, J. M.
2020	What Are Furries?	14.3% stated feeling a sexual attraction towards animals.	4,790	fek

The simple average across all surveys is 16.1%. Weighing the estimates according to sample size gives a result of 14.9%. Some important limitations of these surveys should be noted, however.

A shortcoming that affects every survey on the furry fandom is the fact that it's impossible to gather a random and representative sample of online communities. As all of these surveys rely on self-selected samples, they may have oversampled furries who have a greater interest in the fandom, a more positive opinion of it, or who simply spend more time online.

Rust's estimate of only 2% would be even lower than what's been estimated for the general population. However, this is likely due to social-desirability bias affecting the results, as 325 of the participants were interviewed in person, and respondents had to provide identification plus an email address in order to participate in the online survey.

In Dr. Sharon Roberts' survey respondents were asked to list their kinks and fetishes in an open-ended question. As some zoophiles think of their attraction as a sexual orientation rather than a paraphilia or kink, not all zoophiles may have listed their attraction on this question. Furthermore, only respondents who listed at least one kink were included in the total, hence furries who are asexual or don't have any kinks are not represented in these results.

Hsu and Bailey's study focused only on participants who identified as male, hence their results are not generalizable to all furries. They also state that 64.7% of participants were recruited via a forum for furries. While they don't specify what forum, other surveys of the fandom suggest that very few furries participate in forums. It should also be noted that while 46.7% of respondents reported some level of sexual attraction to animals this does not necessarily mean that they can all be classified as zoophiles, as many researchers set a threshold of medium or low attraction to make such a classification.

ZooWiki

ZooWiki logo

ZooWiki was a wiki for the German zoophile community. It was created on May 23, 2005, by Wolfie. It had 89 articles as of October 2006, on topics such as literature, authors, philosophy, events, vendors, anatomy and general trivia.

ZooWiki's policies specified that it should not contain explicit or illegal content. ZooWiki was located at http://zoowiki.zetapin.de/ (defunct, July 2012. Retrieved via the Internet Wayback Machine).

See also

• Zoophilia on Wikipedia
• Bestiality on Wikipedia
• Bestiality
• Zooier Than Thou

External links

• Zoophilia Wiki
• ZETA-VEREIN official website (German)
• Zoophilia.net official website (retrieved via the Internet Wayback Machine)
• Zoophilia and Your Health on alt.sex.bestiality (login required)

Media

• Zoophilia in the furry community article on adjective species
• YouTuber Sappho "comes out" as a zoophile, sparking outrage towards the furry community article on InvenGlobal