Dutch Beastie Party Puts 500 Cops on Animal Welfare

Dutch animals will soon be among the best-protected in the world, thanks to an unlikely alliance between a far-right political party and one that says it's in politics on behalf of animals. Under a government coalition agreement, 500 police officers who were due to lose their jobs because of budget cuts will be kept on and assigned to protecting the welfare of the country's animals, Der Spiegel reports.

The officers—dubbed "guinea pig cops" by Amsterdam's police chief—will have all the powers of regular police, plus some extra training. The force was proposed by The Party for the Animals, a party that holds several seats in the Dutch parliament and says it was elected by people to represent animals. The plan became reality after Geert Wilder's anti-Islam Party for Freedom threw its clout behind it. (More Netherlands stories.)