I don’t think anyone is arguing that animals have no understanding of consent, I think the issue is that there’s a communication barrier in dealing with humans (I.e. they can’t say ‘yes’)
Zoologists have a pretty robust understanding of rape and consent within the animal kingdom, but it’s always through observing interactions between animals.
The point is consent is something that doesn’t matter to the conversation of people who do the deed with animals. I think a much more productive line of questioning would be: Is the animal restrained in any way? Have they drugged the animal? What’s the relationship between the animal and person?
I don’t think anyone is arguing that animals have no understanding of consent, I think the issue is that there’s a communication barrier in dealing with humans (I.e. they can’t say ‘yes’)
Zoologists have a pretty robust understanding of rape and consent within the animal kingdom, but it’s always through observing interactions between animals.
The point is consent is something that doesn’t matter to the conversation of people who do the deed with animals. I think a much more productive line of questioning would be: Is the animal restrained in any way? Have they drugged the animal? What’s the relationship between the animal and person?