Seems the Swiss love their horses rather too well

London: The eight million-strong Swiss also appear to have in their midst horse-lovers of a different kind -- as many as 105 sex acts by humans on horses were registered last year in Switzerland, a media report said here.

Tier im Recht, an animal rights group in Zurich, Switzerland, said it was feared there are as many as 10,000 people living in the country with an unnatural sexual interest in animals, Mirror reported on Saturday.

Andreas Ruttimann, a legal expert with the group, said despite the shocking figures -- the highest number recorded so far, the matter was being under-reported.

"This rate is relatively elevated compared with other types of animals. A total of 105 cases of animal cruelty to horses were registered last year, up considerably from previous years but probably below the actual number of incidents," Ruttimann said.

The group said the number of bestiality -- cross-species sexual activity between human and animals -- cases is likely to be high as so many people in the country live near farms or are involved with horse-riding activities.

Overall, there were 1,709 incidents of abuse against animals in Switzerland in 2014, up from 1,542 from the previous year, the report said.

There are an estimated 110,000 horses living on Switzerland's 18,000 farms.