Zoophilia or bestiality is a paraphilia that implies a sexual fixation in animals and not in humans. The terms are often used interchangeably, 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 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 often not driven by a sexual preference for animals. Some studies have found that a preference for animals 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", although also sometimes as "zoosexuals", or even quite simply "zoos". Zoerasty, theSodomy and zooerasty are other terms closely related to the subject, but they are less synonymous with the previous terms and are rarely used.
The term zoophilia was introduced into the field of sexuality research in Psychopathia Sexualis (1886) by Krafft-Ebing, who described a series of cases of "rape of animals (bestiality)" as well as zoophilia erotica, which he defined as sexual attraction to the animal's skin. The term zoophilia derives from the combination of two nouns in Greek: ζῷον (zṓion, which means "animal") and φιλία (philia, which means "love (brotherly)"). In general contemporary usage, the term zoophilia may refer to sexual activity between human and non-human animals, the desireof participating in such or for specific paraphilia (ie, atypical arousal) indicating a definite preference for non-human animals over 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 general use.
