Whether it be dogs, dolphins, or horses, there are some true, um, animal lovers out there. But a new report suggests that such anomalies might be more common than we think. According to the New York Post, a report from Swiss animal welfare group Tier im Recht suggests that out of 105 cases of horse maltreatment in Switzerland in 2014, 10 percent involved people having sex with the animals.
"This rate is relatively elevated [with horses] compared with other types of animals," Andreas Rüttimann, a legal expert with Tier im Recht, told Swiss newspaper The Local during a press conference. He also emphasized that many more cases likely go unreported due to the large number of Swiss citizens involved in equestrian activities—there are now more than 110,000 horses at 18,000 farms in Switzerland. The group also noted that there's a huge difference in prosecution of animal abuse across cantons (the Swiss version of a province); in some, the number of cases is severely underreported.
Aside from the prevalence of horses in Switzerland, Tier im Recht didn't offer an explanation for the rise in zoophile abuse—maybe it's one of those "take what you can get" things.
