I'm highly convinced that beastialism is MUCH more commonplace than anyone would like to admit. So many things seem to make reference to things like, getting caught with the family dog, that it leads me to think... Do a majority of families have that one member who was caught shagging the dog? There must be at least a significant minority, in order for that joke to be relatable and palatable enough to land without outrage.
You also get that thing where people joke about a taboo subject, as a means to feel out the crowd on it. It's not completely uncommon to hear a beastiality joke when you're drinking with friends, for example, and whenever it comes up, I honestly wonder about the person who did bring it up....
I feel like beastiality jokes and references that make it into media are put there by beastialists and Zoophiles to see what can be gotten away with, but I don't know any Zoophiles in media so I don't have any evidence. It's just this... Feeling I get.
It's hard not to sound delusional without evidence to back it up. I just find it SO hard to believe that this taboo subject isn't a secret, guilty pleasure for FAR more people than would be willing to admit it. It feels too natural and primal to me for me to believe it's just this fringe mental illness thing, plus I believe there are no robust ethical or philosophical grounds on which one can truly object to its practice - only cultural conditioning. Surely many others have come to realise this, and kept it completely to themselves, thus never showing up on the radar...
I'm on the fence about this. I certainly think that a lot more people are at least curious about it than most people realize or would like to admit. There are also probably a lot of people who aren't interested in it, but aren't bothered by it, either. There's
another thread on this forum where people discuss whether they ever suspected someone they know of being zoo. I could think of a few people, but I had no strong evidence, just suspicions, and I may have misread those situations due to my own biases (and maybe a little wishful thinking).
Historically speaking, in the days back when everyone had horses for work and transportation, and may have had herds of animals, quite a few people practiced opportunistic bestiality as a convenient means of sexual gratification. This still happens in some cultures today. As someone who grew up in the suburbs, I always heard rumors about country boys and farm boys getting it on with the animals. I don't know how common that really is, but probably quite a few of the guys here who have had experiences with equines and other farm animals got started that way. Anyway, I was jealous of those farm boys for having such opportunities. Had I grown up on a farm I absolutely would have fucked just about every animal there, if they were compatible and willing. Not because I'm a zoo but because at that age I was desperate for sex and didn't really care where I got it. (I probably would have felt really guilty about it, too, because at that time I believed that it was "sick" and "wrong" and "unnatural" and that I'd go to hell for it. But as long as I enjoyed it--and I can't imagine
not enjoying it--I would have kept on doing it in spite of any guilt. I've never been very good at resisting temptation.) And unless I'd been caught and forced to stop, I'd probably would have continued to this day.
I want to be reincarnated as a farm boy.
In college I had a religious studies class taught by the college chaplain. He pointed out that if the Bible bothered to forbid something like homosexuality or bestiality, it's because it was "happening all the time," and people knew that it was happening. But its also important to remember that the majority of people were not OK with it and have been trying for millennia to stamp it out, hence the taboo against it. The Bible prescribes the death penalty for bestiality, and there are some records of cases where that penalty was imposed, going all the way up to Puritan New England (e.g.,
Thomas Granger--his story breaks my heart). On the other hand, to my knowledge, there isn't evidence of large numbers of convictions for and executions for bestiality. Was bestiality really rare? I doubt it. Were most people just good at not getting caught? I suspect that when someone discovered a friend or family member with an animal, the may have looked the other way. I mean, knowing the penalty, would you rat out a friend? A sibling? Your own child? Even if they were disgusted and ashamed, I suspect most people would have behaved protectively, maybe even helping to cover up the "crime," or at least they would have looked the other way. "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."
You said that, "there are no robust ethical or philosophical grounds on which one can truly object to its practice - only cultural conditioning. Surely many others have come to realize this, and kept it completely to themselves, thus never showing up on the radar..." I agree with you on the first point, but on the second point, I think very few people have taken the time to really consider the issue and examine the arguments. I think many people consider it self-evident that having sex with animals is a form of sexual abuse, comparable to rape or child molestation. Even if they acknowledge that the animal may have consented to and enjoyed the experience, they consider it comparable to statutory rape--the animal can't give
informed consent because they lack the cognitive ability to do so. At the same time I agree with you that
some people have realized that bestiality/zoophilia is not
inherently wrong. But I also agree with you that the people who have realized this keep it to themselves, because they know full well that they are in the minority and that expressing such an unpopular opinion would likely have consequences for them--people would accuse them of being an apologist for zoos (nearly as bad as being an apologist for pedophiles), or would accuse them of being a zoo themselves.
All of that is just to say that yes, bestialty/zoophilia is way more common than most people realize, but we're also still a minority with few defenders and we face severe consequences if we are found out.