“Every time I visit the Zoological Gardens, I am struck by the number of bizarre, remarkably eccentric, exotic, indefinable women we meet here, to whom the contact with the animal world of this place appears to constitute an adventure of physical love” (Edmond and Jules de Goncourt, “Leaves from a Diary,” 1851 to 1895).
R. Schwaeblé also gives an interesting account of the zoophilous tendencies of Frenchwomen (“Les Détraquées de Paris,” pp. 203-212).
Unquestionably, modern zoological gardens offer even more than country life opportunities to women of zoophilous instincts, and can in this respect become dangerous. I remember from my own schooldays in Hanover remarkable scenes in the much-visited zoological gardens of that town—scenes which at that time we naturally did not really understand, but on which the above remarks and observations throw a clear light.
Thus we shall no longer be surprised by the following extremely remarkable case of zoophilia in the female sex:
Kleptomania in a Girl aged Thirteen.—A girl thirteen years of age, who is incurably affected with kleptomania, and who at the same time has a morbid inclination towards horses, is the most recent phenomenon in the province of decadence. The unfortunate child is the daughter, Frida, of a married couple living in the Höchstestrasse. She had committed a number of thefts of vehicles, which might have been attributed only to skilled professional thieves. The morbid tendency compels the child to take the horse by the bridle and lead it away. She does not appear to have any tendency to sell the animal, or to steal anything from the carriage. Her love for horses led her in earlier years to unusual acts. Thus she took the horse of a dairyman in the Elbingerstrasse out of its stall, mounted it, and rode away. The child has been under medical treatment for a long time on account of her extremely unusual tendency, and we understand that the medical evidence shows that she cannot be held legally responsible for the offences she has committed (Berliner Tageblatt, No. 352, July 14, 1906).
Passing now to consider definite acts of fornication with animals (Sodomie—see note [648] to [p. 640], bestiality),[650] there is hardly any animal which has not been in some way and at some time utilized for the gratification of human lust; but naturally in most cases the animals always available were employed, such as dogs, cats, sheep, goats, hens, geese, ducks, horses. Martin Schurig, as early as 1730, in his “Gynæcologia” (pp. 380-387), recorded a large number of cases of bestial aberrations in which, in addition to the animals above mentioned, apes, bears, and even fishes were employed. In antiquity snakes were often the objects of unnatural lust on the part of women, playing the part of the modern lap-dog. Bestiality is very widely diffused.[651] Countries especially celebrated for the frequency of this practice are China and Italy; in the former country geese, in the latter goats, are preferred for sexual malpractices. In India, and also among the Southern Slavs, horses and donkeys play the principal part as objects of bestial love.[652]
Acts of fornication with animals are due to various causes; in exceptional cases only can they be referred to morbid predisposition. In the lower classes of the population, and among many races—as, for example, among the Southern Slavs and among the Persians—the superstitious belief that venereal disease can be cured by intercourse with animals occasionally gives rise to bestiality. More frequently the lack of opportunity for normal gratification of the sexual impulse is the cause of bestiality; and it is naturally of more frequent occurrence in the country, for the reason that there human beings live in closer association with animals than they do in the town. The herdsman alone with his herd in a solitary place, the groom who in the stable suddenly finds himself in a state of sexual excitement, the peasant whose wife is perhaps ailing—all these indulge in bestiality simply from opportunity. Friedrich S. Krauss learned from a trustworthy authority that in the Austrian cavalry Slavonic soldiers frequently gratified their sexual impulse upon mares. When they are caught doing this, they excuse themselves by saying that they are too poor to pay a woman. Commonly these fellows escape punishment. In brothels, also, bestial practices are common; in some cases debauchees themselves take part in these practices, in others prostitutes make a display of bestial intercourse. Frequently, also, sadistic impulses, similar to those which find expression in the torturing or slaughtering of animals during coitus, play a part in bestial intercourse.
An eyewitness describes such a brothel scene, which took place in the Via San Pietro all’ Orto at Milan. An old roué played the principal part in this; he had become so depraved that he had sexual intercourse with a duck, the throat of which was cut during the bestial act!
Some forty years ago, in the Karntnerstrasse in Vienna, a prostitute was found in her room, murdered, and her chambermate and professional companion was condemned to imprisonment as guilty of the murder. After some years, however, the real murderer was discovered, and he was detected by the fact that he was only able to have an erection of the penis when he killed a hen. He was known among the prostitutes as “the hen-man.”
Another case of sadistic bestiality was recently reported by the veterinary surgeon Grundmann, at Marienburg in Saxony (the reference will be found in the Berliner Tierärztliche Wochenschrift for September 14, 1906):