Page "Peter Singer" Paragraph 40

In a 2001 review of Midas Dekkers ' Dearest Pet: On Bestiality, Singer argues that sexual activities between humans and animals that result in harm to the animal should remain illegal, but that " sex with animals does not always involve cruelty " and that " mutually satisfying activities " of a sexual nature may sometimes occur between humans and animals, and that writer Otto Soyka would condone such activities.

This position is countered by fellow philosopher Tom Regan, who writes that the same argument could be used to justify having sex with children.

Regan writes that Singer's position is a consequence of his adapting a utilitarian, or consequentialist, approach to animal rights, rather than a strictly rights-based one, and argues that the rights-based position distances itself from non-consensual sex.

The Humane Society of the United States takes the position that all sexual molestation of animals by humans is abusive, whether it involves physical injury or not.