Americans may not realize that in the following states it’s legal to have sex with non-human animals: Kentucky, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Ohio, Texas, Vermont, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, and Wyoming. People can legally have sex with horses, cows, pigs, dogs, dolphins, rabbits, or other creatures in 11 states. No federal law explicitly prohibits sex between humans and non-human animals.
Known as bestiality, zoophilia is illegal in all other states, considered a misdemeanor or felony. In some states bestiality is defined as “cruelty to animals;” in others a “deviant sexual act,” and in others, “a detestable, abominable crime against nature.”
Zoophiles like Malcolm Brenner argue relationships with animals, like he had with Dolly the bottle nose dolphin, should be as normal those in interracial relationships. But, is zoophilia really a sexual orientation choice? Is it really the same as an inter-racial relationship?