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I've found some sources that explain this is a phenomenon that this is likely happening in Germany right now, although the sources for that are a bit old.

Dailymail claims on 1 July 2013:

Bestiality brothels are spreading through Germany faster than ever thanks to a law that makes animal porn illegal but sex with animals legal, a livestock protection officer has warned.

Themanews claims on 9 August 2015.

an illegal trafficking ring of stray dogs and puppies is operating in the city Patras in the north of the Peloponnese. Sources say the dogs are collected and transported to Germany, where demand for animals in bestiality brothels is on the rise.

Nairaland claims on 11 january 2015:

In the recent past there has been an explosion in the number of brothels established to cater to the needs of Europeans who love to have sex with various kinds of animals such as sheep, goats, dogs, horses and even pigs. Apparently, Germany is the ideal place for this sort of business as bestiality is legal in the country,

There are some more sources but with those ones I think it's more than enough to support the claim.

Are those types of brothels increasing in Germany?

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    It seems that the legal status of bestiality in Germany has been back-and-forth for some time. From what I can tell, it's been illegal since February 2016. Whether there is or were animal brothels seems related to this but is not definitive enough to give us an answer. There may be animal brothels in Germany today, just operating illegally.
    – user11643
    Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 1:40
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    You might want to investigate the authenticity of the first reference since that particular 'news paper' has been very anti-European for some years.
    – Code Gorilla
    Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 12:12
  • Questions like this are probably going to get less research than others for logistical reasons. Specifically, there isn't enough bleach for both the computer's search history and the mind of the researcher.
    – Nat
    Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 23:06
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    Note that "faster than ever" and "explosion" are pretty vague, and easily misleading, claims. For instance, if the number goes from zero to one, that's faster than ever, and expressed as a percentage could be considered an explosion :-)
    – jamesqf
    Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 5:19

1 Answer 1

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In 2012 it was discussed to change the animal protection law, and "animal brothels" have been a topic in these discussions (also in 2010 and maybe even before).

2012-09 - Katharina Meyer (journalist of the Badische Zeitung) composed the article Gibt es Tierbordelle in Deutschland? (Do animal brothels exist in Germany?). She investigated where the statement (that animal brothels exist) was coming from and tried to find sources.

  • A primary source (Madeleine Martin, animal welfare officer of Hessen) claims that she was misquoted in the press. She claims that she never said that they would exist in Germany. But she doesn’t doubt that they do exist in Germany: she knows that they exist elsewhere¹, so it would be highly probable and logical that they do exist in Germany, too.

  • A professional association of veterinarians (Bundesverband praktizierender Tierärzte) supported a campaign/petition which claimed that farms exist where animals are kept ready, trained, and used for bestiality. The campaign’s spokeswoman (Astrid Behr) doesn’t think that it’s a rumor, as such things can be read in bestiality-related Internet forums. She claims to have photographs [but it’s not clear if these are about such farms, or about bestiality in general], but isn’t allowed to send them.

→ Katharina Meyer couldn’t find a single documented/concrete example of an animal brothel in Germany.

2012-10 - Dr. Thorsten Gerdes (judge of the State Court in Detmold) composed a statement as ‎individual expert (on the topic of changing the animal protection laws) for the Bundestag. According to the archived copy (PDF), he wrote:

Das Argument, in Deutschland seien Tierbordelle denkbar,50 mutet mangels konkreter Fälle als eher theoretisches Szenario an, zumal § 17 TierSchG auch bereits in seiner jetzigen Form geeignet sein dürfte, einen derartigen Extremfall zu erfassen.

My rough translation:

The argument that animal brothels are conceivable in Germany seems to be a rather theoretical scenario, as there are no specific/concrete cases; especially since § 17 TierSchG in its current form should be suitable to cover such an extreme case.

→ Dr. Thorsten Gerdes didn’t know of a single documented/concrete example of an animal brothel in Germany.

2012-12 - A reform of the animal protection laws is decided, to come into effect on 2013-07-13. The new (and as of 2017 still current) law § 3 TierSchG explicitly covers bestiality: it’s illegal to use/train/provide animals for carrying out sexual acts if the animals are thereby forced to behave in a way that is not species-appropriate.

So,

in 2012 there couldn’t be found proof that even a single animal brothel exists in Germany,
in 2013 the new animal protection law introduced (again) a law against bestiality,
and to this day there don’t seem to be any news reports about actual cases / proof.

  • Could animal brothels exist in Germany? Yes. Illegal ones anyway, but possibly also legal ones (as § 3 TierSchG doesn’t forbid all kinds of bestiality).
  • Is there proof that animal brothels exist(ed) in Germany? No.²
  • Does the number of animal brothels in Germany currently increase? As we have no proof that even one animal brothel exists, it seems very unlikely, but we can’t know for sure, of course.

¹ Madeleine Martin claims that animal brothels exist in Scandinavia. Katharina Meyer checks this claim, too. The mentioned source points to Denmark (an article in 24timer). Back then, Denmark’s police and Denmark’s minister of justice said that they don’t know any cases.

² There are cases mentioned where animal owners take money to allow other persons to have sex with their animals, but it would be a bit of a stretch to call this brothels. Example: Sodomie: Die Dunkelziffer ist hoch (a private pet owner in their backyard)

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    wonder what animal would have sexual interaction with humans and it'd be considered "species-appropriate". Maybe some tentacle monster, but afaik those are fictional :)
    – jwenting
    Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 6:03
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    @jwenting: I'd say that for pets which have been bred for hundreds of generations to share the daily life of humans, you cannot argue conclusively that sex with humans would be less "species appropriate" than most of the other things they do with humans which we consider normal and healthy.
    – Michael Borgwardt
    Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 10:12
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    @jwenting: In 2015-12, the Federal Constitutional Court dismissed a constitutional complaint (regarding § 3 TierSchG). In it, the court explains the term "force": a behavior is required that is comparable to the use of physical force. So if no force is involved, it seems it doesn’t have to be species-appropriate. IANAL, but my understanding is that situations where the animal is free not to approach and free to leave/stop (no violence/force, not trained, no electric fence, no leash etc.) shouldn’t be illegal.
    – unor
    Commented Jun 26, 2017 at 15:40
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    @jwenting didn't say I had any interested in something like that, I've chosen to stay a virgin this after all so clearly I'm not running out to have sex with anything that moves. But I think one of the most important steps in my being a skeptic is my ability to see both sides of an argument. I've trained myself very hard to play devils advocate whenever one point of view is being clearly espoused, to help judge the validity of the argument. Regardless of my personal beliefs I feel the responsibility to point out such counter arguments.
    – dsollen
    Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 12:40
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    @jwenting and as someone playing devil advocate I have to point out your claim that a domestic animal will do anything their owner says. I've had pets, they don't! Yes they will usually do what is demanded after enough force, but they will do whatever they think they can get away with, as with every dog that sneaks on the couch their not allowed on. They will also express displeasure when something goes beyond their comfort zone, as with a cat that will still hiss at or even bite a toddler who chases it and pulls it's tail. They can be forced, but their desires are clearly expressed.
    – dsollen
    Commented Jun 27, 2017 at 12:47

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