It seems animal ethics is still in evolution. As a society, we don't seem to be either consistent or correct in how we apply ethics to animals or ethics to our interactions with them. I am uncertain what the future will hold but I suspect there will be progress and more clarity.
The protections brought about by PETA and other animal advocacy groups seem to be mostly around humane living conditions, feeding, protecting habitats and killing of protected species, and how to most kindly kill the animals we use for food.
I am not aware of protections from forced sex for breeding purposes which provide income for humans, but throw the animals' "right to consent" to sexual activity right out the window. But this isn't my field. Perhaps it is being worked on...
Shaya, you seem unaware or ignorant of issues around animal husbandry. I was too... When something is new to me and piques my interest, I look it up. I found that breeding stock bulls are put in a restraining pen which is drawn closely to their sides. It is called a crusher. Then another bull or steer is put in front of the bull whose semen is to be collected. In a last resort, an actual cow in heat will be put in front of him. Oddly the bull will mount any other animal of his kind. He usually has no problem getting aroused by another male! And yet we wonder at how humans can be gay lol!!
I saw a video of a pig whose semen was being collected. He was given a "dummy" pig to get aroused by. A pigskin, headless, stuffed and stretched on a form. The male pig was biting its neck area. A voice-over said this was "foreplay." The man who was massaging the pig's penis looked up at the camera with an embarrassed grin.
And how do humans who are in this line of work deal with the sex going on in front of them? I asked Pixi. She grew up in a rural area and saw both cattle and horses being bred on a farm a few times. She said the farm workers who were involved made all sorts of sexy jokes during the mating or semen collection. They would, after all, be getting in between the mating cattle or horses with a kind of "flesh light" device, tricking the male into having his penis in there instead of in the other animal, which worked to massage the penis until the sperm came out. That's... not normal human behavior. Of course you'd need to make jokes to get around the discomfort (or your own arousal).
There was a time my ex h and I got involved in breeding cats for a period. When we'd put our stud male with our queen to mate, he and I would make jokes about the cats' passionate repeated intercourse. "Wow," he'd say, "It would be hard to keep up with them." You are supposed to let them mate 3 times and then part them. But the first time we did it we let them mate until they were exhausted. It took 12 acts of intercourse over about an hour. That was impressive. We knew it was hard on their health to go at it for so long, but we just wanted to see how far they'd go!
Oh yeah, I just remembered something I once read about, what if you have a female cat who goes into heat, but it's not time to breed her yet, and she's suffering and yowling and can't eat or sleep? Put some lube on a q-tip and insert it into her vagina! In other words, fuck her with a dildo.
One youtube video about collecting semen from an elephant was interesting. It was being done for science, to study the sperm's DNA for learning about the immune system to keep elephants healthier. The young scientists (men and women) tranquilised a bull elephant out in the bush of the sanctuary. While he was lying there unconscious, a woman and man human massaged his penis and collected the semen. When the credits ran, the scientists all had nicknames: Susan "Doctor Penis" Smith. Tom "Sperminator" Jones. Things like that.
Jokes really help when we observe or are involved in animal mating.
With regards to incest, not all incest involves underage children. Let's put underage incest in a different category called pedophilia and leave it there since I don't see that changing anytime soon. But incest between consensual adults of similar age, i can imagine those laws changing in the future, though the social taboo may linger, in much the same way as the other sodomy laws regarding homosexuality have changed but social taboo may linger for a few generations.
Perhaps. But being brought up with someone is usually fraught with enough emotions non-conducive to sexual attraction. Competition, farting and other smells, fighting, just the day to day familiarity killing romance. I don't think it's going to suddenly become hugely popular.
I worry more about humans who don't know they are siblings, due to both being a product of a prolific sperm donor bio dad. This happens! Some young guy who decides to donate sperm to a sperm bank very regularly, and then his sperm is used successfully to bring forth babies, who grow to be adults in the same area, meet and partner up, and mate, never knowing they are half siblings!
Can you think of any other sex acts that our children or children's children may be okay with in future and defend even if they don't see themselves doing sex that way, the same way heterosexuals may not see themselves participating in homosexual activities but would defend the right of others to do so today?
Well, define "sex." In recent times, up til the late 60's or even 70's, oral sex was seen as a sin and taboo. To this day some people think it's bad. Masturbation was seen as just as sinful and bad. Premarital sex was bad. Living with your lover was bad. Christianity is loosing its hold on our psyches, and therefore procreative sex in a Christian marriage, penis in vagina, no oral, no anal, no masturbation, no porn, no homosexuality, is becoming a thing of the past. Hallelujah I say. Transgender people are still murdered or commit suicide every day. Perhaps our children's children will see the sadness of that.
As for other sex acts, well, there is only so many ways to put our genitalia to use... you get into the realm of kink. Nowadays with porn available on the phone in our hip pocket, very young kids are exposed to all manner of kink. Whips and chains are so acceptable, mainstream movies make it their focus (50 Shades), if badly. I am sure BDSM will become more and more mainstream. Anal sex is acceptable now as well. Young women are expected to shave their pussies to make them even more exposed for intercourse and oral sex and photos to share on their smart phones.
Child porn, animal porn, dismemberment, snuff videos, and necrophilia are still taboo. We get around it legally though, in porn, with young women who are 18 but look younger and dress like children, with furries dressing up as animals for sex, with piercings and the like for blood enthusiasts, with simulated death and sex with people acting dead... or dressing up as the undead, vampires and other undead. Vampire movies used to be scary, now they are sexy. And sex with a werewolf comes close to bestiality, come to think of it.
Public nudity is coming along. There are cities in the US where the laws against women being topless in public are thrown out. Of course, in European parks and on beaches, there are plenty of nude people. Not so much in the US. And women are still being harassed for breastfeeding in public, which isn't even sexual. Thrown out of restaurants and off planes. Of all taboos, to me, this is the one to get rid of. Public breastfeeding is lawful in all 50 states, and yet women are regularly harassed for feeding their children with their breasts, as all mammals do.
, but then made me think about what consent really means. A 14 year old girl hitting on her 40 year old teacher does not constitute consent in the court of law. I think as a society, we are using age here as a predictor or marker of self awareness or intelligence. I'd argue that a 14 year old has more of this than a dog or dolphin and therefore the dog or dolphin that initiates sexual advances on a human would still not be considered consent because they are unaware of what they are doing and can perhaps be easily manipulated. I dunno. We need an ethicist.
