AMSTERDAM – The Internet potentially will lose one of its main sources of bestiality videos under a ban approved Tuesday by the upper house of the Dutch parliament.

The new law bans human sex with animals, including in private situations where the animals are not injured, and prohibits the production or distribution of animal pornography, a summary of the law posted on the upper chamber’s website said.

Given the illicit nature of the product, precise figures on animal pornography video sales are difficult to find, but the Dutch newspaper
Algemeen Dagblad, in a 2007 survey, found that distributors in the Netherlands were responsible for some 80 percent of bestiality videos worldwide.

The bill was introduced in April 2007 and passed the lower house in July 2008, but took time to make its way through the upper house to final approval. It was not immediately clear how soon the law would go into effect.

Sex with animals had been legal in the Netherlands, as long as it could be proven the animals were not injured.