For several years now, in Russian-language publications on the Internet, you can find reports that bestiality has been legalized in Denmark and that there are even corresponding brothels operating. We have verified the accuracy of these reports.
In September 2020, the Rossiya 1 TV channel aired the 60 Minutes program, in which the presenters and studio guests discussed sex education in Denmark. During a discussion about the “decaying West,” Russian State Duma deputy Alexey Zhuravlev stated: “They have the first booth for zoophiles opened in Denmark! It's officially open, you can come and rape a turtle! <…> This is the absolute truth!” His words (without critical assessment) were retold in their materials by some federal media, in particular Lenta.ru. However, the deputy was not the first to announce this news. Back in 2017, similar publications appeared on Pikabu and in Facebook, and even in 2021 they appear in public places "VKontakte".
The appearance of publications about a Danish brothel for zoophiles is probably due to the fact that Denmark has only recently banned bestiality at the state level. Relevant law was accepted only in the spring of 2015 - violators will face up to a year in prison for a first crime and up to two years for a repeat crime. Agriculture Minister Dan Jorgensen, who introduced the bill, said the ban would protect animals that by nature cannot consent to sexual intercourse. Against the adoption of the law voted only a small faction of the libertarian Liberal Alliance party. We could not find any reports that this legal provision was changed in subsequent years.
The earliest mentions of news in Russian can be found in the summer of 2017. Probably one of the first such materials was published on the portal "Bell of Russia". Its authors report that the initiative was supported by Minister Jorgensen (the same one who supported the law banning bestiality in 2015), that the establishment will be located in a three-story building in the very center of Copenhagen, and the cost of one “session” will be from €70 to €150. The publication does not provide links to any authoritative sources.
Publications very similar to the article in “Bell of Russia” (or even with a direct link to it) began to appear in other media in Russian: on the legal portal 9111.ru, in Russian-language versions of the Georgian edition "Gruzinform" and Estonian resource Õhtuleht, on the Belarusian website Zametki.by and many others.
All these texts are very similar to the article that was published in April 2017 published French portal SecretNews. The news is illustrated by the same photograph of a “prostitute dog”, the same Danish minister and “brothel manager” are mentioned in the text, and the same price list is named. Apparently, the publication of the French media is the first in a series of news about the opening of a brothel for zoophiles in Denmark.
However, mentions of the news, and especially its announcement on the air of the Russian federal television channel, lack one clarification. On the website of the French source in the “About Us” section it says: “SecretNews is a free and independent parody site. Most of the information on this site is published for satirical and humorous purposes and cannot be considered reliable." In fact, this portal is an analogue of the popular IA in Russia "Panorama", whose comic messages were also passed off as real news on Rossiya-1. So, in March 2021, the dean of the Faculty of World Politics of Moscow State University Andrei Sidorov retold publication by Panorama that European authorities allegedly demand the introduction of an LGBT character into the animated series Masha and the Bear.
Thus, publications in dubious media and social networks, as well as the subsequent statement by Deputy Zhuravlev, are based on a message from a satirical website. The authors of the resource on which it appeared openly declare that their news is fictitious and does not correspond to reality. Bestiality was banned in Denmark back in 2015, but we were unable to find evidence that the ban was softened or cancelled. If brothels for zoophiles operate in Denmark, they operate illegally, and their owners and visitors risk receiving real sentences for violating local laws.
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