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Understanding Bestiality and Zoophillia

(original copyright 2002)

This is one of the only books available about people who have sexual relations with animals, a behavior known as "bestiality," and people (known as "zoos") who are sexually and emotionally attracted to animals, a condition known as "zoophilia."

This book details my journey when I conducted a study about bestiality and zoophila in the early 1990s, and describes my findings. These findings provide abundant and rich information about the relatively unexplored lives and behaviors of individuals who have had sexual relations with animals.

There is a lot of material in this book. Different readers may find different parts of the book more interesting. For some, the literature review may be of most interest, for others, the results of the study. Yet others may find the personal stories in Chapter 16 most engaging.

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Interview

Dr. Miletski's audio interview on 'The Zooier Than Thou' podcast on May 18th, 2021 to speak about Understanding Bestiality & Zoophilia

Audio Interview

Dr. Miletski's (hour and a half) audio interview about her study and her book, for the Renegade Ape Podcast, on September 29th, 2020. (Hani's interview starts at 5:00)

Testimonials

I'm writing to you today to give my sincere thanks and appreciation for the work you've done concerning zoosexuality. As a pioneer in this area, you had conducted the first large-scale study of this phenomenon and shared invaluable data that has reassured many zoosexuals that they are not broken, sick, and alone, as society wants everyone to believe. You've also enabled many outsiders unfamiliar with this, to gain a deeper level of informed understanding that has allowed them to view it through an objective, clear-headed, non-discriminatory lens. And because of this, you have saved many lives and human/non-human relationships.

Your bravery in being one of the first to undertake such a study of one of the last controversial topics of our time has, in many respects, paid off: two decades after the publishing of your book, "Understanding Bestiality and Zoophilia," a fair number of scientists have followed in your footsteps to conduct their own investigations into the lives and behaviors of those individuals who are attracted to and mated with animals…

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Book Review

A review By Vern L. Bullough, Ph.D., R.N., as it appears in the Journal of Sex Research, in its May 2003 issue, Volume 40, Number 2

This is the best overall survey of bestiality that I have read. It is based on a doctoral dissertation at the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality in San Francisco, and is one of the few dissertations from that institution to be published. The title itself is important since Miletski, following the work of Mark Matthews (1994), believes there are two general classes of people who have sex with animals: (1) the "bestialists" who have had one or a few sexual contacts with an animal or use animals when a more "normal" outlet is not available; and (2) the "Zoophiles," individuals who prefer an animal as a sex partner, often forming deep emotional relationships with them. Whereas these definitions are useful for studies of people currently involved in animal relationships and those who can be interviewed, they are not so useful for historical study of such activity, which tends to be confused by use of such terminology as "sodomy," "unnatural acts," and "zooerasty."

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