Love without Borders
Following advances in ethology, leading to the idea that animals think, suffer and even make plans for the future ; data from anthropology, showing how many societies regard animals as individuals in their own right ; and deductions of philosophy, whereby if an animal counts as an individual then it has rights, the human/animal boundary is experiencing vast changes. This questioning, illustrated by works such as Animal Liberation (1975) by Peter Singer, has collateral effects : by « liberating » animals, other barriers are also broken down and thus a whole range of fantasies about inter-species sex can be imagined. Although logically conceivable, this revolution poses problems of a symbolic nature. Speculation about bestial practices, with their associated ensemble of injuries, diseases and other « punishments » (natural and supernatural) remind us that the removal of imaginary differences has catastrophic effects : far from ensuring peace, it creates disorder and fuels conflicts.