Norway creates police for animals

Norway has brought animal rights to a new level. Faced with animal cruelty, Norway decided to dedicate an entire branch of police to the animal cause.

After having put in place the 'reindeer police', a brigade dedicated to the protection of the herds in the north, Norway has extended this to cover all animals. The Dyrepoliti (animal police in Norwegian) is a brigade defending animals and their rights.

Link between criminals and animal cruelty?

From the basis that scientific studies have shown that people inflicting cruelty on animals are more likely to attack humans or become criminals, Norway therefore decided to set three people (an investigator, a jurist and a coordinator) to combat these crimes.

Violence and abandonment...

The creation of this brigade is not the first step Norway has taken for the protection of animals. Country has already put in place the Animal Welfare Act that obliges the habitants to come to the aid of an injured animal by alerting the authorities, as well as prohibiting mistreatment and abandonment.

Despite these efforts, the track record leaves a lot to to be desired. According to the Norwegian police, in the last six years, less than 2% of animal cruelty cases were sanctioned and only 38 complaints of animal cruelty were recorded. We hope that this new brigade will encourage the population to denounce cases of mistreatment or repeated abandonment.

In the USA and the Netherlands, associations have been created to come to the aid of animals. France, however, has not yet reached this stage.

Have you ever witnessed animal cruelty?

source : science&avenir