Bestiality and prostitution are legal in Denmark. And not just separately.
A regular correspondent with a longstanding interest in the region stumbled upon this story from 2008 and passed it along.
Ice News (“Animal brothels legal in Denmark“):
Laws in both Denmark and Norway are fairly open when it comes to a person’s legal right to engage in sexual activity with an animal. The law states that doing so is perfectly legal, so long as the animal involved does not suffer. According to the Danish newspaper 24timer, this interesting gap in the law has led to a flourishing business in which people pay in order to have sex with animals.
On the internet, several Danish animal owners openly advertise their services. The newspaper contacted several such individuals and was told that many of the animals have been engaged in this kind of activity for several years and that the animals crave the sexual stimulation. The newspaper found that the cost charged by the animal owners varied from DKK 500 to 1,000 (USD$85 to $170).
Since Danish laws are so similar to Norwegian laws, the animal bordello phenomenon has led many to question if such a practice could be legal in Norway as well.
Torunn Knaevelsrud is the section chief for animal welfare for the Norwegian Food Safety Authority. “It is difficult to say yes or no,” he replied to a question about the legality of animal bordellos in Norway.
“It could be that the animals don’t really care,” Knaevelsrud said. “But I think it is in the nature of the case that animals will often be victims of injury, stress or suffering in connection with sexual acts with humans. Either that they are held fast, or frightened, or suffer pain or physical injury,” Knaevelsrud said.
Having no familiarity with the publication and having never heard of this phenomenon despite this particular report being more than six years old, I was suspicious that it was a lark. Alas, not so much. Indeed, despite my obliviousness, the practice has gotten more recent attention in prominent publications.
International Business Times report (“Denmark’s Legal Bestiality Trends Gain Notice as Outraged Public Continues to Condemn Baby Giraffe Marius’ Killing“):
As public outcry against a decision by Copenhagen’s Zoo to slaughter a baby Giraffe called Marius grows, outraged observers in social media have claimed that such an activity is linked to the fact that bigger profanities such as bestiality or ‘zoophilia’ is permitted in Denmark.
On Sunday, the news of the two-year-old Giraffe being killed sparked a spate of online outrage after a bid to save the animal by thousands of people failed. The animal was killed, despite other zoos such as the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Britain offering to give Marius a new home.
Thousands of people had also signed an online petition to stop the killing. The incident that has widely been called an ‘outrageous murder of a poor animal’ was justified by Denmark citing European laws on inbreeding.
“What do we expect from a Country (that) has not made Bestiality illegal?” said a Facebook user, Sandra Plowman reacting to IBtimes’ article, which pointed to the fact that Sunday’s live footage from the zoo showed disturbing images of the giraffe being dissected.
“What can you expect from a place that has legal animal brothels? Denmark is disgusting,” said another individual with a profile name, Little Wing.
Although there is no evidence suggesting a link between Sunday’s killing of the giraffe to an act of bestiality, Copenhagen’s decision to put down the animal has been widely considered another example of the country’s record on brutality against animals – which includes tolerance towards growing trend of sex between humans and animals.
I was vaguely aware that there was some controversy over the giraffe killing from various social media headlines but never bothered to click through. Vice (“IT’S LEGAL TO HAVE SEX WITH DOGS IN DENMARK“) and (“THE WOMAN WHO TRAINS DOGS TO HAVE SEX WITH HUMANS“) has more information about the particulars than you likely want to know.
The Daily Mail even claims “Bestiality brothels are spreading through Germany.”
This is information I could have done without, frankly.
