Lights, camera... but no more animal action

After years of campaigning by the Animal Rights Party and the Labour Party, and after a lengthy debate in the country's Upper House, the ban was finally passed on Wednesday.

Concerns about the ban were raised over the wording of the law. "Sexual acts" was replaced with "indecent acts" over fears that vets and farmers who artificially inseminate animals, may be in breach of the law.

Labour Party MP Harm Evert Waalkens is a proponent of the ban. He said, "There are some estimates that 65 percent of these animal porno sites are created in the Netherlands - in that way we are a top country in this perversity."

As well as being a leader in the internet side of the business, Dutch newspapers have claimed that approximately 50-70 percent of the DVD industry is under Dutch ownership.

The news puts Dutch law in line with neighbours France, Belgium and the UK, as well as with those further a field. In Peru for instance, it is illegal to copulate with a female alpaca, while in South Carolina a man has been arrested twice for having sex with the same horse.