Sexual activity between humans and animals is a topic that elicits strong negative emotions. Although humor can be one reaction (Shir-Vertesh, 2013), disgust, condemnation, and incomprehension are common. In spite of strong reactions, such activity might not be that rare. According to recent prevalence studies, 2–6 % of the population experience some degree of sexual arousal to animals (Dawson et al., 2016; Bártova et al., 2021), and a large population-based Czech study found that 1.6 % had engaged in sexual activity with an animal (Bártova et al., 2021).
Individuals who conduct sexual acts with animals are met with stigmatizing labels. They are sometimes called “crazy”, and some refer to their behavior as “sick”. If we move from such stigmatizing lay terms to established psychiatric classification systems to ask whether persons who conduct sexual acts with animals in fact fulfil diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder, we see that this is not always the case.
Diagnostic classifications of persons with self-defined sexual interest in animals
The most relevant diagnostic category is zoophilia. ICD-10 does not operate with this term, but “sexual activity with animals” is subsumed under F65.8 Other disorders of sexual preference. The larger category of disorders of sexual preference has been renamed in ICD-11 and is currently referred to as paraphilic disorders. ICD-11 has limited this category to conditions with sexual arousal patterns that involve non-consenting others (Krueger et al., 2017). The relevant diagnostic category is 6D35 Other paraphilic disorders involving non-consenting individuals. Among requirements is a sustained and intense pattern of atypical sexual arousal focusing on others who are unwilling or unable to consent—such as animals (or corpses). In addition, the individual must have acted on or be distressed by the fantasies or urges of this sexual arousal.
DSM treats this very similarly. According to DSM-5, sexual contact with animals is a mental disorder, i.e., a paraphilic disorder, if the person also has intense and persistent sexual interest in animals. This is coded as 302.89 Other specified paraphilic disorder, zoophilia. Of note, a distinction has been made between paraphilia and paraphilic disorder. Someone with an intense and persistent sexual interest in animals, but who is not bothered by it and/or does not act on it, has a paraphilia. This is not a mental disorder. Someone who uses animals for sexual purposes, but who
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