Knowledge is power!

[Rottynme]

Hey all. I've been binge listening to ZTT for the past 5 nights at work. 50 hours and counting. I'm very thankful I have a job where I can blare a podcast with that kind of subject matter and no one says shit. (mainly due to being the only person on shift) I previously had very high hopes about our sexual orientation becomming a thing within my lifetime but after hearing all the stories and tons of laughs on their show I now am almost certain it will. Judging by the amount of people in my life already that know about me being a zoo and they also know it's not a lifestyle or fettish for me they are starting to come around more than I have dreamed. I've sent the link for the podcasts to many of my friends and let them know that I know they have busy lives and some of the subject matter may not interest them at all I've heard back from a few with positive feedback. A couple of people, even family members that I've made my secret known to accepted me for who I am but had negative thoughts buried in their minds about who zoo's really were but just didn't want to confront me about it because they loved me as a person. They have been feeling awkward about asking me questions and such mainly because they didn't want to offend me or have things lead to a big arguement. I hope everyone out there on this site takes time to listen to as many as those podcasts as possible if y'all haven't already. I feel proud to be a gray muzzle in our great group of people in this downright crazy fucked up world but it is what it is and you gotta make the best of things. Peace and love to all!

 

[FloofyNewfie]

I like ZTT and I don't really have anything specifically against Toggles. But I find that ZTT is a good resource for those that doubt their own zoosexuality. It's a good resource for those that struggle with liking animals romantically instead of other humans. For a lot of people, they know they are zoosexual but all of the pressures of society tell them not to be. For those people I believe that ZTT is a good resource. For those willing to hear from other people that share their own sexuality, that "Hey! This can be from a position of love. Animals can indeed be legitimate love partners."

However, I do believe Toggles is a little too optimistic with getting Zoosexuality destigmatized, normalized, and especially legalized. For most of the western world it would be a hard sell to even get bestiality decriminalized. Yes, there are true animal loving zoos such as myself that see their animal partner as someone special and near and dear to my heart. Someone that loves his animal partner with every fiber of his being. But not everyone sees it that way, for some people sexual intercourse with an animal is merely a fetish, or an animal is something to dominate over and abuse for their own pleasure and/or power. I've meet enough bad hombres in my lifetime. Those that shouldn't be in a 50ft radius of an animal of any kind. What most of society (including loving zoos such as ourselves) would call a rapist and sex offenders. The issue is that no one can just pop in the bedroom and see which type of sex (whether forced or not) is happening. Most people will err on the side of "forced/rape" as a general rule of thumb. An animal doesn't have the verbal capability to speak out against it's abuse, should it be going through sexual abuse. People are ignorant towards the fact that bestiality can be anything other than abuse, and you'll be hard pressed to change anyone's mind on this subject.

Even if you take sex out of the equation and stick with the premise of "I love my dog/horse/cat/etc. as a romantic partner, platonically." Most people will still think of said person as a very strange individual. Most of society will still see someone of this nature as a weird and creepy individual. Most people will doubt that their love would be "platonic" in the first place. People equate romantic love with sex, whether or not sex is even in the equation.

You've been lucky so far telling people about your zoosexuality. I have not been as lucky. I've told two of my non-zoo best friends back when I was younger and more naïve. One person is still a really good friend. The other person wants nothing to do with me anymore. Due to unfortunate circumstances my brother also knows that I'm a zoo. He thinks that I'm a sick weirdo and is convinced that I HAD to be molested as a kid to be sexually attracted to animals. Spoiler alert... I've never been molested. It took a long time for my brother to come to terms with this, and even still he doesn't like it one bit. But he knows that I would never hurt animals and knows I'm an animal lover. At best, he sees it as me taking advantage of the animal willingness to breed.

If you share ZTT with the wrong people, it is going to come back to haunt you. Unless you really don't care about your name being associated with the term "animal fucker." This is in spite of the fact that I believe you've mentioned that you don't actually have sex with any of your animals. Sharing this media with non-zoos will definitely have them questioning whether or not you DO have sex with animals, or if you have in the past. It seems like you've been lucky thus far with sharing your sexuality with people, but it only take ONE wrong person to mess up your life. For you to become the pariah of the town. My advice would be to stop while your ahead, but that's just my advice.

 

[Rottynme]

You make great points. I'm learning day by day on ways to adjust my conversations accordingly to keep myself and my fur kids safe. Being optimistic never caused me any harm. I'm not going to put up a giant sign in front of my house that says "dog fucker lives here" but I will continue my pursuit in educating the non zoo population to increase the number of zoo allies

 

[Rottynme]

Just another point I forgot to add about what is my main drive not staying hidden is that the general public either has flat out wrong information/bad ideas about our community. They're minds will never change unless someone let's them know the truth or at least more accurate real life/personal information coming from someone they already love, trust and respect.

 

[FoxandtheHounds]

I like ZTT, though I hear all kinds of what seems like mixed reviews on them. I don't know enough about those involved to pass judgement on them so I don't (Non zoo's and dickheads in general could learn something from that). I can only judge by what I know and I agree with... some of what they say.

Personally I'm in the middle on this subject. It's good to see my orientation shown in a good light by someone other than myself and it would be nice to not worry about legal ramifications, but I can't shake the thought of "there's no such thing as good publicity" screaming in the back of my mind. I'm all for those who want to spread knowledge of good and ethical zoo's to those who may be willing to hear it but after the way one person finding me out ended I won't be talking to anyone random about it by choice. I struggled with myself for most of my life trying to understand why I feel the way I do and as I got older I guess I just kind of stopped worrying about what people think about me. I live by my own value system, and I really don't even worry about legal trouble anymore because of that. I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong or unnatural, and I could never cause any animals harm. I accept myself as I am knowing that I love my doggy wife more than most if not all non zoo's love their human wives. But I don't tell anyone random about it either.

You've got bigger balls than me Rottynme, and you're lucky to have that kind of support around you. I hope you hold those people tight! You are right on about most of the hate coming from closed minded people with bad information too. There are some bad people out there, but they're in every walk of life. Some people have harmed animals, which is usually argument number one or two from non zoo's. But, some men have harmed women too and It's not illegal for all men to have relationships with women because of a few bad guys doing that. Why can't we have it that way too? Hmm.

 

[Rottynme]

I like ZTT, though I hear all kinds of what seems like mixed reviews on them. I don't know enough about those involved to pass judgement on them so I don't (Non zoo's and dickheads in general could learn something from that). I can only judge by what I know and I agree with... some of what they say.

Personally I'm in the middle on this subject. It's good to see my orientation shown in a good light by someone other than myself and it would be nice to not worry about legal ramifications, but I can't shake the thought of "there's no such thing as good publicity" screaming in the back of my mind. I'm all for those who want to spread knowledge of good and ethical zoo's to those who may be willing to hear it but after the way one person finding me out ended I won't be talking to anyone random about it by choice. I struggled with myself for most of my life trying to understand why I feel the way I do and as I got older I guess I just kind of stopped worrying about what people think about me. I live by my own value system, and I really don't even worry about legal trouble anymore because of that. I don't feel like I'm doing anything wrong or unnatural, and I could never cause any animals harm. I accept myself as I am knowing that I love my doggy wife more than most if not all non zoo's love their human wives. But I don't tell anyone random about it either.

You've got bigger balls than me Rottynme, and you're lucky to have that kind of support around you. I hope you hold those people tight! You are right on about most of the hate coming from closed minded people with bad information too. There are some bad people out there, but they're in every walk of life. Some people have harmed animals, which is usually argument number one or two from non zoo's. But, some men have harmed women too and It's not illegal for all men to have relationships with women because of a few bad guys doing that. Why can't we have it that way too? Hmm.

Thanks for that heartfelt reply. The past 5 nights I've been listening to every episode of ZTT and thankfully I'm on shift by myself because I was in fucking tears when the heard the episode honoring Doug who lived the last years of his life on HIS terms and die knowing he made a fucking difference. I know he cemented my outlook on how I live the rest of my life by hearing his words/advice/jokes. We can't rid the world of hate BUT we can rid our lives of hate/fear if we choose.
Loves

 

[Ruben]

It's cool that you have nice and accepting folk around you, @Rottynme. But are sure that sending non-zoos zoopodcasts is a great idea? I imagine that it would annoy them at some point. Even if they accept you, do they have to dive deeply into the topic for you or do you think that these podcasts are genuinely entertaining for them?

I'm learning day by day on ways to adjust my conversations accordingly to keep myself and my fur kids safe.

Despite human couples calling their human lovers "baby" sometimes, I cringe a bit everytime I hear someone refer to their animals as kids – unless they are actually pups, kits, kittens.

 

[Rottynme]

Even if they accept you, do they have to dive deeply into the topic for you or do you think that these podcasts are genuinely entertaining for them?

I have a large group of very understanding and accepting type of friends. They all have their own little quirks and most of them believe in the concept that it's "whatever" They're not shocked by much of anything because they're a little abnormal in their own way themselves. There's a lot of people out there that i've told and their response is usually "yeah? So what?"