I believe that the most interesting aspect of studying unusual sexualities is how the encounter with astoundingly diverse fantasies forces you to keep an open mind, never settling on a prejudiced view of the world and your fellow humans. Dealing with the thousands of paraphilias out there, after all, you just have to. To keep a professional detachment isn’t always easy, though.
I confess I can’t help laughing when I talk about ultra-niche preferences like, in example, dendrophilia, or discuss the concept of objectophiles without using the word ‘lunatic’. Sometimes, however, I stumble onto subjects so alien they challenges me on a visceral level. Topics so hard to require a serious effort to tackle them objectively – and I am not the only one to react like this. How do you feel about zoophilia?

The clenching you just felt in your stomach is exactly what director Christopher Spencer experienced in 1999 when he was assigned to make the episode titled Animal passions for Hidden love, a British television science program. This notwithstanding, he pulled the job admirably – so much that he was contacted by many zoophiles who wanted to be interviewed and tell the world their own love stories.
Five years later he did just that. The result was a documentary – titled Animal passions again – that has recently resurfaced online to cast a rather unexpected and very informed view of the phenomenon. You can see it below, or download it in higher resolution from the (not always available) online resources of a psychology course. Either way, it is going to surprise you.