# Can you rape an animal?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 20, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069 "2005-06-20T16:34:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/21 "2005-06-20T21:31:19Z")
That kid is fucked up. Totally and completely fucked up.
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### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/22 "2005-06-20T22:19:45Z")
Holy shit, that is one fucking sick individual.
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### Author:  [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/23 "2005-06-20T22:37:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> The squirrel requires the climbing of trees,
> which puts you at risk of a slip and a fall.
> The dog’s man’s best friend if you don’t mind the fleas,
> **but the hedgehog can never be buggered at all**.
[http://www.hootisland.com/text/songs/hedgehog.html](http://www.hootisland.com/text/songs/hedgehog.html)
inspired by Pratchett, of course!
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### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/24 "2005-06-20T22:43:26Z")
Chorus (Sung by all present):
_Beastiality’s great, Mate, beastiality’s great
(fuck a wallaby!)
Beastiality’s great, Mate, beastiality’s great_
Verses, made up on the spot by a randomly chosen participant or you buy the next round, must fit this metre:
_Shoot your load in a toad, Mate, shoot your load in a toad…_
or
_Put an inch in a finch, Mate, put an inch in a finch…_
etc.
It’s a game anyone can enjoy. But yeah, that kid’s whacked.
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### Author:  [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/25 "2005-06-20T23:19:50Z")
My lord. It’s the ultimate country-western song. You could put in the lines “my girlfriend left me” and “my dog died” and you would even have to put a comma between them.
Anyway, it may be so much semantics but no I don’t think animals can be raped. Humans have a particular relationship to sex that other animals don’t (well maybe bonobos…those sluts). I don’t think it amounts to the same sort of very specific type of violation. That said, animals can certainly be violated and abuse, and quite obviously this dog was horribly abused. I wouldn’t be opposed to calling it rape…although I think the “most serious animal cruelty charges they have on the books” works just fine.
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### Author:  [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)
#### Post date: [June 20, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/26 "2005-06-20T23:24:25Z")
[http://eclectech.co.uk/pettingzoo.php](http://eclectech.co.uk/pettingzoo.php)
That kid is fucked up though.
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### Author:  [@CateAyo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CateAyo)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/27 "2005-06-21T00:05:14Z")
As this is IMHO and all, I will suggest that to call this rape, even as depraved as it is, is to minimize the experience of the women (and even the men) that have been raped. It would be a stretch to imagine that animals would sense the powerlessness and degradation in the same sense that a human victim would. As i understand the most severe damage in rape is almost always the emotional and psychological impact. Therefore, I am not willing to perform the intellectual gymnastics necessary to define this as “rape”. Extreme and heinous animal cruelty, perhaps.
Thanks
Hawk
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### Author:  [@Mehitabel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mehitabel)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/28 "2005-06-21T01:20:59Z")
Tie me kangaroo down, sport, tie me kangaroo down!
Sick and cruel bastard. But if rape is a crime of humiliation, I would indeed argue that it can’t happen to animals. They can be hurt, they can be traumatized (my brother has a dog that jumps at sounds like a jackrabbit, was beaten up as a puppy) but they can’t share the feelings of a human rape victim.
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### Author:  [@medstar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/medstar)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/29 "2005-06-21T01:34:44Z")
> [@pravnik](#):
>
> How weird. I’d be very surprised if there actually was a **statutory crime named “dog rape” in South Carolina**. I wonder if there’s a “dog murder” or “burglary of a dog habitation” charge. 😕
I was wondering . . . do you all suppose that residents of West Virginia is breathing a sigh of relief, saying “Thank God for South Carolina!”? 😃
::d&r::
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### Author:  [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/30 "2005-06-21T01:59:51Z")
When you look at the pictures of the boy and the dog, which one do you think has more intelligence. Which one has a soul"
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### Author:  [@Metacom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Metacom)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/31 "2005-06-21T03:02:15Z")
> [@Zebra](#):
>
> When you look at the pictures of the boy and the dog, which one do you think has more intelligence. Which one has a soul"
The boy and both, respectively.
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### Author:  [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/32 "2005-06-21T04:11:08Z")
> [@audiobottle](#):
>
> I understand that the story is shocking mainly for the very uncommon (at least I pray it’s uncommon) violating of the dog. But why is there almost no mention at all of the fact that he apparently also molested a 3 year old girl and committed statutory rape with a 13 year old girl? Is it just because you really can’t give many details in the interest of the minors’ privacy rights?
That story has probably already been written. This appears to be a minor update.
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### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/33 "2005-06-21T05:05:17Z")
I’m no expert but I would totally buy a mental illness defense.
I also know nothing about the mindset of a typical prisoner but if this dude ends up in prison…ouch.
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### Author:  [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/34 "2005-06-21T05:11:59Z")
suppose I should actually answer the question. I had two threads open on the same subject and posted to the wrong one.
Can you rape a pet? As big of a copout as this might be, I have no idea. I can’t begin to imagine how a dog would go about giving consent though. They’d also have no way of knowing what he/she was in for.
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### Author:  [@RandomLetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandomLetters)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/35 "2005-06-21T12:53:12Z")
> [@Indygrrl](#):
>
> That kid is a fucking sociopath.
Is it wrong for me to laugh at the terrible pun in that statement?
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### Author:  [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/36 "2005-06-21T13:15:30Z")
I will not stick it in a cat, lest her “meow” change to B flat.
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### Author:  [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/37 "2005-06-21T13:55:21Z")
> [@](#):
>
> …Can you rape a pet? As big of a copout as this might be, I have no idea. I can’t begin to imagine how a dog would go about giving consent though. They’d also have no way of knowing what he/she was in for…
-
-
- Well now---- to put it lightly, male animals are pretty-much _always_ ready, and anyone who’s ever lived on a farm and kept different species of animals penned together has seen that female animals are ready for _anybody_ whenever they’re in heat, as long as you’ve got anything-close to the right moves and your equipment is the right size.
* * *
- But that has little to do with what happened here–sex among dogs usually doesn’t result in death. I’d say it’s a cruelty charge that resluted in death, pretty plainly.
~
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### Author:  [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/38 "2005-06-21T18:34:24Z")
Where’s the Doug Anthony All Stars when you need them? _I Fuck Dogs_, indeed.
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### Author:  [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/39 "2005-06-21T19:34:47Z")
I think not about a dog, he would not like my mighty log.
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### Author:  [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)
#### Post date: [June 21, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-rape-an-animal/309069/40 "2005-06-21T19:39:40Z")
> [@CateAyo](#):
>
> As this is IMHO and all, I will suggest that to call this rape, even as depraved as it is, is to minimize the experience of the women (and even the men) that have been raped.
Well put. I couldn’t agree more. Indeed, notice how the article completely reverses the actual crimes? The two girls don’t even warrant the same consideration as a dog. Thanks, Fox News, for inspiring us with your top-notch reporting.
As for the jokes in this thread: **betenoir** made me spit pop all over my desk. You’ll pay for that!
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