And here I thought that those same sex marriage opponents were being hysterical when they said the next thing their opponents would want to legalize was bestiality.

We kill animals for food and therefore it's okay to also rape them?

Good moral reasoning there Dan. Think harder....

This post is 2 days early, right? RIGHT? Please tell me I'm right!

"We kill animals for food [and clothing, sport, science, to feed to other animals, because there are too many of a particular kind, because they wandered into a suburban neighborhood, or for no particular reason] and therefore it's [ethically a little strange to draw the line at a behavior they might initiate themselves]?"

Hmmm atomic. So you don't support animal cruelty laws?

The biggest drawback to screwing horse, and cows, is that you have to dismount and walk up the front of the animal to get a kiss.

Sure I do. But animal cruelty laws don't hinge on an animals inability to consent to cruelty.

I don't think anyone is advocating bestiality. I can consider an activity "icky" without having to write an essay on the logic behind that. However as a society, we allow some "icky" things and prohibit others. It seems to me that if we are going to to broadly condemn/criminalize a behavior, we should be able to explain why.

What do animal cruelty laws hinge on? The fact that it isn't right to be cruel to animals? Same goes for raping them.

Don't be a sophist.

Well, we can say the act of beating a dog is wrong, generally speaking, in any context other than self defense. We'd stop a man from beating a dog, and we'd stop a dog from (figuratively) beating a dog.

You have a problem with raping an animal, but not with say, forcing that animal to be raped by an animal of its own species. Or shoving an electric prod up its ass and just skipping the middleman.

You can get on your high moral horse (so to speak), but let's be honest: the reason that the latter is OK is because it produces a benefit to you (a fine leather coat or an affordable cut of steak) and the former doesn't.

Hey atomic, don't rape animals. Good night.

Hey Blabby, no you shut up.

Hmm....you know, an inability to consent is ALSO an inability to say 'No,' right? Go for it, Atomic!