ROME, Italy — Soon there will be one less place in Europe where people can fornicate with animals—legally anyway. A new law on the table in Denmark proposes to make sex with animals, known as zoophilia, illegal. The Danish law currently states that humans can have sex with animals as long as the animal doesn’t suffer, which begs the question: how would one know if an animal enjoyed human sex?

“I propose a change in the law on protection of animals to state explicitly that sexual relations with animals are no longer permitted, Denmark’s agriculture minister, Dan Jorgensen, said in a statement. “Animals have to be treated with respect and care and they have a right to special protection because they cannot say no.”

If the law passes in Denmark, only Finland, Hungary and Sweden will remain lawless when it comes to Lassie. A similar law was shelved several years ago by the Danish parliament, but Jorgensen hopes his country will adopt the animal cruelty measure this time around, especially considering Denmark’s controversial record on animal rights. The country recently was embroiled in an international scandal when zookeepers in Copenhagen slaughtered a baby giraffe named Marius that wasn’t compatible with the genetic makeup of other animals in the zoo. Despite offers from zoos around the world to take the animal, the Danes shot the giraffe with a bolt gun and fed it to the lions in front of zoo visitors, including children.

Jorgenson is apparently more concerned that by not reigning in Denmark’s animal sex laws, the country could become the wild west of animal sex tourism. A report in the Independent newspaper states that there has been “a rise in the underground animal sex tourism in Denmark,” which we assume does not mean underground animals such as gophers, moles and prairie dogs.

Denmark already has a handful of animal brothels which, according to Ice News, a site specialized in Nordic reporting, charge between $85 and $170 depending on the animal of choice. “When the rules have been tightened in the rest of Europe, there’s a risk that Denmark will be considered a refuge for people with this proclivity,” the minister said, according to AFP. “That’s why I want to send a clear signal that Denmark is not a refuge for people who want to sexually exploit animals.”

Danish news sources have quoted a recent Gallup poll, which found that just 76 percent of the Danish population support the new law, which implies that 24 percent of the population would like freedom of movement when it comes to pursuing beasts for pleasure. In a Vice Video aptly called “Animal Fuckers” one unnamed man explains what turns him on in the animal kingdom. “I’m into human females. I’m into horse females,” he says. “I’m asexual towards rats. I’m a bit voyeuristic about dogs and women.”

According to a landmark study called “Characteristics of Juvenile Offenders Admitting to Sexual Activity With Nonhuman Animals”, there is often a correlation between sexual abuse against animals and sexual violence against humans. “Studies of adult sex offenders appear to support the co-occurrence of sexual offenses against humans and animals among some offenders,” the authors write. “The data suggests that juvenile animal offenders should be considered a sub-group of sex offenders in that 23 of 24 juveniles (96 percent) who admitted to bestiality also admitted to sexual offenses against humans.”

In October, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation turned animal cruelty, including sex with animals, into what it calls a “top-tier felony,” with known offenders kept on a registry similar to sex offenders.

People who literally love their animals have been tied to a series of side crimes. In August, a woman in New Mexico tried to kill her roommates after they witnessed her having sex with a dog and admitting to having sex “multiple times” with both roommates’ dogs. In September, a priest who was convicted of 24 counts of pedophila against Inuit people in Nanavut, Canada, had a bestiality record as well.

The animal rights group Occupy for Animals, which has a collection of truly disturbing stories and photos about animal rape, is petitioning the European Union to require all European nations to adopt laws against all zoophilic behavior. With the exception of Denmark, Finland, Hungary and Sweden, all European Union countries have some sort of animal protection laws on their books, even if they stipulate that sex with animals is illegal only if there is injury to the animal.

“While the world looks upon Europe and especially upon the E.U. as a model in terms of civilization, a simple search on the internet about animal rape cases that had been reported in Europe—ranging from raped dogs to horses— brings many shocking search results,” the group says in an open letter to the European parliament. “Sexual abuse of animals is one of the most trivial and obscene expressions of human behavior, one of the sickest practices that can be thought of and we believe it is truly deplorable that there are no E.U.-laws in place that prohibit and severely punish such sadistic behavior in order to protect defenseless animals.”