Zoophilia or bestiality is a paraphilia that implies a sexual fixation on animals and not on humans. The terms are often used synonymously, but some researchers make a distinction between attraction (bestiality) and act (bestiality).
Although sex with animals is not prohibited in some countries, in most countries bestiality is illegal under animal abuse laws or laws dealing with crimes against nature.
Three key terms that are commonly used in relation to the topic (zoophilia, bestiality, and zoosexuality) are often used interchangeably. Some researchers distinguish between bestiality (such as a persistent sexual interest in animals) and bestiality (such as sexual acts with animals) because bestiality is generally not motivated by a sexual preference for animals. Some studies have found that animal preference is rare among people who have sexual contact with animals. Additionally, some zoophiles report that they have never had sexual contact with an animal. People with zoophilia are known as “zoophiles”, but also sometimes as “zoosexuals” or even simply as “zoos”. Zoerastia, Sodomia and zooerastia are other terms closely related to the topic, but they are less synonymous with the previous terms and are rarely used.
The term zoophilia was introduced into the field of sexual research in Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) by Krafft-Ebing, who described a series of cases of “animal rape (bestiality)” as well as erotic zoophilia, which he defined as sexual attraction to animal skin. The term zoophilia derives from the combination of two Greek nouns: ζῷον (zṓion, meaning “animal”) and φιλία (philia, meaning “(brotherly) love”). In general contemporary usage, the term zoophilia may refer to sexual activity between humans and nonhuman animals, the desire to engage in such, or to a specific paraphilia (i.e., atypical arousal) indicating a definite preference for nonhuman animals. instead of humans as sexual partners. Although Krafft-Ebing also coined the term zooerasty for the paraphilia of exclusive sexual attraction to animals, that term has fallen out of use.
