Animal Rape

An Apology

I realize, today, that I thought I had posted this and I hadn’t. I’m not sure why – it may have been the subject, it may have been Candlemas, it may have been brain fog from low blood pressure, or it may have been all of the above. Whatever the explanation, I am sorry.

Tech Challenges: SEO and Platforms

I made a commitment to check out SquareSpace. I’m in luck – a friend has an account and has offered to show me how it works. She also said she could format things I write and then export them into my blog. I have not decided to commit to making a change. I have, though, made a commitment to explore alternatives. It’s open-ended – no deadline!

As for SEO, I am hoping to find something that is written in clear English for beginners. I have a feeling I could do a few simple things to make my page more appealing to the search engines, but what I really need is somebody who knows what they are doing. As Bob Dylan said, “It ain’t me, babe, it ain’t me you’re looking for.”

Spencer

I woke up in the middle of the night to muffled banging. I looked around, and, with what ambient light I had, found the source of the strange noise.

It was Spencer doing acrobatics on the cat tree. There is a hole in the top layer, and he was doing circles around the perimeter of the hole. Across, down, across, up, across, down, across, up again. The whole time, his tail was waving around like a dog’s. If it’s for balance, it doesn’t work very well, because he often loses his grip. Sometimes he catches himself, sometimes he has to turn in midair to land on the floor on all four feet. When he saw that I was watching, he stopped and sat quietly on the top tier, next to the hole, radiating dignity.

Animal Rape

I was reading blogs randomly and came across “Blooming Lotus: Journey to Recovery from Childhood Abuse” by Faith Allen. Among the categories, polyfragmentation first caught my attention, then animal rape. There is a lot about polyfragmentation in my blog, but not a single mention of animal rape. So I figured it was about time to write about it.

This may be more graphic than usual. It also may have a more immediate effect on you, as it is not a topic that is often talked about. Breaking a secret is always huge!

Animal rape shouldn’t be confused with bestiality, which is sex between humans and animals. Forty-eight of the fifty states have laws against having sex with an animal; New Mexico, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia lack laws. (This article has interesting information on laws and sentencing in all the states. https://www.animallaw.info/topic/table-state-animal-sexual-assault-laws)

Bestiality is usually practiced alone, but sometimes in group settings, such as during cult activities. When Googling, a fair number of comedy pieces appear, and also a lot of music. I didn’t listen to any, so I can’t tell you anything about it, except that the covers are pretty gory.

I had not heard the term “animal rape” before reading Faith’s blog, although I instantly knew what it was. It means forced sexual contact with an animal, not attacking an animal sexually. It can occur in any setting where other forms of child rape occur.

Since rape means forcing sex upon another against their will, it seems pretty clear to me that humans can rape animals. But can animals rape humans? I don’t think animals are tuned in to humans enough to know whether sex, on the human’s part, is willing or non-willing. So I would say, no, animals can’t rape humans.

Certainly, an animal may be used by a human to rape another human – that is, to have sex against the second person’s will. This is what we are talking about in the context of healing from ritual abuse: training an animal to have sex with a child. Most often it is a dog who is used this way. 

It is a horribly traumatic experience for a child. And what they tell the child during or after the rape can fill them with self-loathing, terror, disgust, and lies. They may be told that they are now possessed by the animal and that its spirit has entered their body and will never leave. A girl may be told that the animal’s sperm will live inside her for the rest of her life and that later she will give birth to that animal’s children. The “animal’s spirit” may be assigned all sorts of destructive jobs to benefit the cult, jobs such as killing, raping, stalking somebody, or simply telling when the child is disobedient.  

Animal rape is especially hard to deal with because there is so much shame and revulsion attached to the memories. The subject is taboo – it’s just not talked about. The isolation feels insuperable. This secret is a heavy burden everywhere, even among other survivors.

I don’t recall being raped by any mammals and I do not have a trauma response when I see a dog, even the few times I have seen dogs mating.

I do, however, have a memory of being raped as a preschooler with a snake. I think it may have been a trick because I cannot imagine how a snake could be persuaded to enter a child’s body. At the time, I believed that milk had been placed inside me and that the snake was hungry and went after the milk. But snakes do not drink milk. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense, either, that I remember feeling sorry for the snake’s suffering, not for my own. Where was the fear and revulsion? 

Another reason I do not believe it was a real snake is that I have no fear of snakes. I have always liked snakes (and skinks, lizards, turtles, toads, frogs, and baby crocodiles) and am not afraid to handle them. There are some memories that I probably will never fully understand, and this is one of them.

I have no idea what percentage of children are abused using animals to rape them during rituals or training. I do know that it is far more common than we realize. Some of you may be shocked that I’m talking about it, and some may be relieved to know that somebody is talking about it at long last. Faith was the groundbreaker, but few, if any, followed her in print or on the Internet.

 If animal rape has been part of your abuse, I think you may find the entries listed on this page – https://faithallen.wordpress.com/?s=animal+rape – validating and supportive. The comments are also very helpful.

Faith writes about a good experience she had processing her experiences on a message board named “isurvive.” https://www.isurvive.org/forum/. (I have been on it, too, and I liked it.) Most of the other resources she cites are no longer available. You might try looking them up on the WayBack Machine at archives.org  

If you know of other resources, it would be great if you could share them in the comments section.