<< Animal Contacts and Age >>

Animal contacts include the usual type of heterosexual intercourse and also anal and oral techniques which provide orgasm for the human males. The present calculations include all three types of relations.

The significance of animal contacts in the history of the human male lies largely in the field of social values; for there is no other type of sexual activity which accounts for a smaller proportion of the total outlet of the total population (Figures 126, 128-130). For that population, including both single and married males, only a fraction of 1 per cent of the total number of orgasms is derived from animal intercourse. In the total population, only one male in twelve or fourteen (estimated at about 8%) ever has sexual experience with animals (Table 59). In this total population, it is not more than 6 per cent which is involved in the most active period (between adolescence and 20). About 6 per cent of the total male population is involved in animal contacts during early adolescence. This is the highest incidence figure at any age.

In the period when such contacts are most frequent, namely between adolescence and 20 years of age, a little less than 1 per cent of the total outlet is so derived. The percentage drops in successive age groups to a little more than 1 per cent in the single population over 20 years of age, and to a still lower figure at older ages. If only the unmarried rural population is considered, the incidence figures range from 11 per cent at 11-15 years of age to 4 per cent at 25 years of age. And it amounts to only 0.04 per cent among those males who remain single after the age of 25 (Table_59).

Half of the females had had their contacts with animals after the onset of adolescence and before the age of twenty-one, but there were 95 older females who had had such contacts, in some instances even in their late forties. Most of the contacts had occurred among single females, although there were 44 cases among married or previously married females.Talmey 1910:162 notes that animal contacts are commoner among unmarried females. Bloch 1933:185 feels that the married and unmarried are equal in this respect.

There are too few active cases to generalize for older male groups. The average younger adolescent boy who is having animal intercourse draws, on an average, 7 per cent of his total outlet from that source in his early teens. The males who are still having such contacts in their early twenties (between ages 21 and 25) may derive as much as nearly 15 per cent of their outlet from that source (Table 59). There are cases of animal intercourse that extend with some frequency into the fifties, and in one case past 80 years of age. In general, the picture is one of decreasing incidence, decreasing frequency, and decreasing significance in the later years; but the cases are so few and the rural-urban factors are so significant, that these data are not readily interpreted without further breakdown.

Table 59. Animal contacts and age of a male
Age
Group		 Cases Animal contacts: Sample Population Animal contacts: U. S. Population
Total Population Active Population Total Population Active Population
Mean
Frequency		 Me-
dian
Freq.		 % of
Total
Outlet		 Incid.
%		 Mean
Frequency		 Me-
dian
Freq.		 % of
Total
Outlet		 Mean
Freq.		 % of
Total
Outlet		 Incid.
%		 Mean
Freq.		 % of
Total
Outlet
Single Males
Adol.-15 3012 0.022 ± 0.0050.00 0.78 5.9 0.38 ± 0.077 0.076 5.88 ±  0.900.023 0.74 5.9 0.39 6.92
16-20 2868 0.019 ± 0.0050.00 0.66 3.5 0.54 ± 0.12 0.094 9.88 ± 1.57 0.029 0.87 4.2 0.69 11.96
21-25 1535 0.003 ± 0.0020.00 0.13 1.0 0.32 ± 0.12 0.094 11.13 ± 3.710.003 0.11 1.2 0.28 14.70
26-30 550 0.002 ± 0.0020.00 0.063 0.5 0.30 ± 0.25 0.10 4.67 ± 4.17 0.001 0.04 0.7 0.13 1.40
31-35 195 .... .... .... 2.1 0.30 ± 0.25 .... .... .... .... .... .... ....
In this, and in the succeeding charts in this and the following chapter, means and medians represent average frequencies per week.
     “% of Total Outlet” in the total population shows what portion of the total number of orgasms is derived from masturbation in the total population.
A total of such figures for all the possible sources of outlet equals 100%, which is the total outlet of the group.
     “% of Total Outlet” for the active population represents the mean of the figures showing the percentage of the total outlet
which is derived from this source by each individual who has any masturbation in his history, in that particular age period.
The percents for the several possible outlets do not total 100% because different individuals are involved in the populations utilizing each type of outlet.

U. S. population figures are corrections of the raw data for a population whose age, marital status, and educational level
are the same as those shown in the U. S. Census for 1940.

On the other hand, the significance of such interspecific relationships becomes more apparent if we confine the calculations simply to that segment of the population which has access to animals, namely to the males who are raised on farms. For that group, the incidences and frequencies of animal contacts are more nearly comparable to the incidences and frequencies of contacts with prostitutes, or of homosexual contacts, in the population. There are a number of city-bred boys (4% between adolescence and age 15 alone) who have sexual relations with animals in their histories (Table 124). Some of this is had with household pets, particularly with dogs, and some of it is had with ponies or with animals in the city stockyards. More of it, however, is had with animals with which the city boy comes into contact when he visits a farm during a vacation period. Since their opportunities for contacts are infrequent, city-bred males may not have more than a few experiences, and the frequencies of contacts among farm boys may average thirty to seventy times as high as the frequencies among city-bred groups. And the fact that most of city boys' experiences occur when they visit on farms suggests that the entire human male population might have animal contacts as frequently as farm boys do if animals were available to all of them.

Table 124. Animal contacts and rural-urban background

Age
Group		 Rural-
Urban
Group		 Cases Animal Contacts: Rural, Urban
Total Population Active Population
Mean
Frequency		 Me-
dian
Freq.		 % of
Total
Outlet		 Incid.
%		 Mean
Frequency		 Me-
dian
Freq.
Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15 Rural 245 0.054 ± 0.018 0.00 2.3 8.6 0.63 ± 0.16 0.50
  Urban 401 0.011 ± 0.006 0.00 0.3 4.0 0.28 ± 0.13 0.08
16-20 Rural 259 0.034 ± 0.012 0.00 1.2 7.3 0.46 ± 0.13 0.26
  Urban 397 0.012 ± 0.008 0.00 0.3 2.0 0.58 ± 0.35 0.09
Educational Level 9-12
Adol.-15 Rural 124 0.038 ± 0.020 0.00 1.4 10.5 0.36 ± 0.17 0.10
  Urban 459 0.018 ± 0.008 0.00 0.5 3.7 0.48 ± 0.19 0.09
16-20 Rural 124 0.092 ± 0.040 0.00 2.9 10.5 0.88 ± 0.32 0.40
  Urban 458 0.017 ± 0.010 0.00 0.5 2.6 0.65 ± 0.33 0.09
21-25 Rural 50 0.013 ± 0.008 0.00 0.5 6.0 0.22 ± 0.08 0.30
  Urban 209 0.014 ± 0.013 0.00 0.5 1.9 0.74 ± 0.69 0,08
Educational Level 13+
Adol.-15 Rural 352 0.14 ± 0.039 0.00 4.7 27.8 0.49 ± 0.13 0.08
  Urban 2587 0.003 ± 0.001 0.00 0.1 1.9 0.14 ± 0.05 0.06
16-20 Rural 363 0.070 ± 0.028 0.00 2.8 15.4 0.46 ± 0.18 0.10
  Urban 2640 0.001 ± 0.001 0.00 0.02 0.7 0.12 ± 0.07 0.06
21-25 Rural 266 0.015 ± 0.008 0.00 0.7 3.8 0.40 ± 0.17 0.25
  Urban 1753 0.0001 ± 0.0004 0.00 0.002 0.1 0.05 0.08
26-30 Rural 85 0.009 ± 0.009 0.00 0.4    
  Urban 445 0.0002 ± 0.00011 0.00 0.0004 0.4 0.05 0.08

Among boys raised on farms, about 17 per cent experience orgasm as the product of animal contacts which occur sometime after the onset of adolescence (Table 151, Figure 172). As many more have contacts which do not result in orgasm, and there are still others who have pre-adolescent experience which is not included in the above calculations. It is, in consequence, something between 40 and 50 per cent of all farm boys who have some sort of animal contact, either with or without orgasm, in their preadolescent, adolescent, and/or later histories. These must be minimum data, for there has undoubtedly been some cover-up in the reports of these activities. The data given in the remainder of this chapter are confined to those contacts which have resulted in orgasm for the human subject; but all of these figures may be doubled if one wishes to determine the total number of persons involved in any sort of relation, whether with or without orgasm. Such data begin to show what the significance of animal intercourse might be if conditions were more favorable for such activity.

Table 151. Accumulative incidence data on animal contacts among rural males
Age Animal Contacts: Accumulative Incidence Data
Total
Population
U. S.
Corrections		 Educ. Level
0-8		 Educ. Level
9-12		 Educ. Level
13+
Cases % with
Exper.		 Cases % with
Exper.		 Cases % with
Exper..		 Cases % with
Exper.
10 749 0.04 203  110  436 0.7
11 749 0.4 203 0.5 110  436 1.1
12 749 3.7 203 4.4 110 2.7 436 4.8
13 749 5.7 203 5.9 110 4.5 436 10.8
14 749 8.1 203 8.4 110 6.4 436 17.2
15 749 10.4 203 9.9 110 9.1 436 22.7
16 745 12.2 201 10.0 109 12.8 435 25.5
17 728 12.8 190 10.0 105 14.3 433 26.1
18 700 15.4 179 13.4 93 16.1 428 26.6
19 646 15.9 166 13.9 79 16.5 401 26.4
20 567 16.5 145 14.5 63 17.5 359 26.2
21 500 14.0 128 14.1 51 11.8 321 28.0
22 366 15.0 101 12.9    265 29.4
23 290 16.7 76 15.8    214 29.0
24 253 17.2 67 14.9    186 28.0
25 217  60 13.3    157 27.4
26 176  50 12.0    126 25.4
27 96        96 24.0
28 72        72 23.6
29 59        59 23.7
“Educ. level 0-8” are the males who never go beyond grade school.
“Educ. level 9-12” are the males who enter high school but never go beyond.
“Educ. level 13+” are the males who will ultimately go to college.

Data confined to single males who lived on farms
for some period between 12 and 18 years of age, or for longer periods.
Data shown for three educational levels,
and for the total farm population corrected for the U. S. Census of 1940.

Figures 171-172. Animal contacts: accumulative incidence
in total U. S. population and in three educational levels of single rural population.
Vs. masturbation (M), premarital intercourse (P), and intercourse with prostitutes (I)

Showing percent of each level of single rural males who have ever had sexual contacts with animals
to the point of orgasm, by each of the indicated ages.


A few of the females—1.5 per cent of the total sample—had had some sort of sexual relation with other animals in pre-adolescence, usually as a result of some accidental physical contact with the household pet, a cat or a dog, or as a result of curiosity which had led to the exploration of the animal’s anatomy, or through some deliberate approach on the part of the animal itself. Among the pre-adolescent females who had had any such experience, the contacts were incidental in 38 per cent of the cases. In most of the pre-adolescent cases (92 per cent), however, the girl had had contacts which had aroused her erotically, and in 20 per cent of these pre-adolescent cases she had reached orgasm. Among the 659 females in the total sample who had reached orgasm prior to adolescence, 1.7 per cent had experienced their first orgasm in contact with other species of animals.

Some 3.6 per cent of the females in the sample had had sexual contacts of some sort with animals of other species after they had become adolescent. Some 3.0 per cent of the females in the total sample had been erotically aroused by their animal contacts. In only 1.2 per cent of the total sample had there been repeated genital contacts which aroused the female erotically, or mouth-genital relations or actual coitus. This means that only one female in each eighty in the sample had had such specific sexual contacts with animals after the onset of adolescence. In addition to the overt experience with animals, 1 per cent of the females had fantasied such contacts while they masturbated, and 1 per cent had dreamt of having animal contacts.

Contacts between the human and animals of other species are largely confined to the rural portions of the male population. Rural-urban backgrounds are, consequently, the most important factors in determining the incidence and frequency of this sort of outlet. Ultimately, 14 to 16 per cent of the rural males of the grade school level, 20 per cent of the rural males of the high school level, and 26 to 28 per cent of the rural males of the college level have some animal experience to the point of orgasm (Tables 91, 151). In this upper educational level, nearly one rural male in three has such contacts to the point of orgasm, and well over half of these upper level males have some kind of sexual contact with animals.

Contacts had occurred among females of every educational level, although most of them (81 per cent) had occurred in the better educated segments of the sample, largely because that group is better represented in the sample.

Table 91. Animal contacts, as related to educational level
Age Group Educ.
Level		 Cases Animal Contacts, Single Males,
by Educational Levels
Total Population Active Population Accum.
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency		 %of
Total
Outlet		 Incid.
%		 Mean
Freq.		 Median
Freq.
Adol.-15 0-8 712 0.026 ± 0.007 0 86 5.8 0.45 0.14 10
9-12 606 0.030 ± 0.009 0.91 5.9 0.50 0.16 9
13 + 2799 0.020 ± 0.005 0.71 5.3 0.37 0.07 23
16-20 0-8 720 0.022 ± 0.007 0.68 4.0 0.54 0.17 14
9-12 607 0.038 ± 0.012 1.08 4.6 0.82 0.24 17
13 + 2861 0.010 ± 0.004 0.36 2.5 0.39 0.09 25
21-25 0-8 361 0.005 ± 0.003 0.15 1.1 0.43 0.33 14
9-12 263 0.014 ± 0.010 0.47 2.7 0.51 0.10 20
13 + 1898 0.002 ±talign="center"> 0.09 0.7 0.32 0.10 26

Median frequencies for the total populations are uniformly 0.00.

“Educ. level 0-8” are the males who never go beyond grade school.
“Educ. level 9-12” are the males who enter high school but never go beyond.
“Educ. level 13+” are the males who will ultimately go to college.

The active population is almost wholly rural and the active frequencies
are essentially those for that portion of the rural population which has animal contacts.
Median frequencies for the total populations are uniformly 0.00.

Animal intercourse has the lowest frequencies of all the sources that contribute to sexual outlet. For most individuals, they do not occur more than once or twice, or a few times in a lifetime. For the total population (including persons who never engage in the activity) the average never rises above once or twice in a year; but for those who actually utilize this source of outlet, the frequency is about twice in three weeks (0.69 per week) in the late teens.

Frequencies of animal contacts vary from once or twice in a lifetime to regular rates of several times a week over a considerable period of years. Maximum regular frequencies for a few individuals may go as high as 8 per week between adolescence and 15 years of age, and 4.0 per week between 16 and 20, but not above once per week between ages 21 and 25, and to 0.1 per week by 30 years of age (Table 49). For most males, however, the frequencies come nearer averaging once in 2 or 3 weeks, in that portion of the population which is having any contacts at all (Table 124). In most histories the contacts with animals are limited to a matter of 2 or 3 years, but in some cases they may extend over a 10-or 15-year period or even throughout the whole of a life span.

Animal contacts are most frequent during the late pre-adolescent years (Chapter 5) while ejaculation is still impossible for the human subject and when, in actuality, the boy almost never reaches orgasm in his animal contacts. One-third of the males who will ever have such contacts have had them by the age of 9. Between 10 and 12 there is a rapid increase in the number of boys involved and the peak of such activity is reached just before the onset of adolescence. In a third of the cases, boys with preadolescent experience continue their activities with animals into adolescent years. In terms of actual orgasms achieved by the human participant, the highest frequencies occur in the earliest adolescent years; but in some rural areas, especially in the West, there is a considerable amount of regular activity in the later teens and even through the early twenties. Cases become relatively rare among single males in later years. There are, nevertheless, occasional individuals who have regular contacts from adolescence into their fifties, and there is one case of a male past 80 years of age who had had such contacts regularly throughout the whole of his life.

There are some data which indicate that the frequency of animal contacts varies tremendously in different parts of the United States. The figures given here apply primarily to the northeastern quarter of the country.

For females. the frequencies of the animal contacts had been low, amounting to only a single experience in about half of the cases. In 47 per cent of the 91 cases which had involved the most specific sort of contact there had been two or more experiences, and in 23 per cent of the cases there had been six or more contacts. There were only 13 females in the sample of 5793 who had reached orgasm by contact with an animal of another species more than three times up to the age at which they contributed their records to the study. There were 6 females, each of whom had reached orgasm more than 125 times in her animal contacts, and there was one female who had reached orgasm perhaps 900 times in such contacts.

In most parts of the country animal intercourse is extremely rare among married males; but, again, such experiences are not unknown among married adults in some rural areas of the West. In fact, in certain Western areas of the United States, where animals are most readily available and social restraints on this matter are less stringent, we have secured incidence figures of as high as 65 per cent in some communities, and there are indications of still higher incidences in some other areas. The cases, however, are still too few to warrant a specific statement on these regional differences.

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