Germany plans to slap a fine of up to 25,000 euros on people having sexual relations with pets, but zoophiles plan to fight the move. They say there's nothing wrong with consensual sex and that the true violations of animal rights are taking place in the farming industry.
The German government plans to ban zoophilia -- sex with animals -- as part of an amendment to the country's animal protection law, but faces a backlash from the country's zoophile community, estimated to number over 100,000.
Zoophilia was legalized in Germany in 1969 and animal protection groups have been lobbying for a ban in a campaign that has been fuelled by heated debate in Internet forums in recent years.
Now the center-right government wants to outlaw using animals "for personal sexual activities or making them available to third parties for sexual activities and thereby forcing them to behave in ways that are inappropriate to their species," said Hans-Michael Goldmann, chairman of the parliament's Agricultural Committee.
In the future, having sex with an animal could be punished with a fine of up to €25,000 ($32,400).
Zoophiles are up in arms. "We will take legal action against this," Michael Kiok, chairman of zoophile pressure group ZETA (Zoophile Engagement for Tolerance and Information), told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We see animals as partners and not as a means of gratification. We don't force them to do anything."
