Sweden Considering Ban On Beastiality

In 1944 officials in Sweden decriminalized the act of having sex with animals and now a new animal welfare act aims to once again make the practice illegal.

Speaking about their intentions Eva Eriksson, County Governor of Värmland said during a press conference:

”We know that there is a great risk of the animals being used this way are harmed by it.”

The main reason for the change? Believe it or not a large part of the councils decision was based off the internet. As a society that has become very connected officials feared that finding animals to have sex with had become too easy thanks to the world wide web.

According to Eriksson:

”Today it is very easy, on the internet and other places, to encounter animals for sexual intercourse and there are also many more reports of this happening.”

While the law would make it illegal to have sex with animals the council says that it will not encompass other “acts of cruelty” against those animals.

As Eriksson stated:

”This is about people who enter stables and perform sexual actions on horses or cows, which is not natural behaviour for the animal and isn’t ethically justifiable.”

The law has also been careful to avoid language that avoids the sexual stimulation of animals for the purpose of breeding and for veterinary medicine procedures.

While it’s about time that such a law came about in the region I’m still amazed that they had at one point made it illegal and then decided to change their minds and decriminalize the act.

[Image via ShutterStock.com]