The town of Capelle aan den Ijssel, east of Rotterdam, presented the country’s first two ‘animal cops’ on Wednesday to great media interest, the Volkskrant reports.

The two officials, who are civil servants not police officers, carried out a brief inspection of 10 sheep for the benefit of the watching press, the paper says.
The new government has pledged to install 500 ‘animal cops’ to combat animal cruelty and neglect, but they are supposed to be part of the regular police force. The move is one of the demands made by the PVV in return for its support of the minority government.
There are some 33 reports of animal cruelty in Capelle aan den IJssel a year, and some 40,000 nationwide, according to animal protection group Dierenbescherming.