Police Won't Investigate Dutch Hosts' Alleged Cannibalism on Live TV

AMSTERDAM (The Blaze/AP) -- Dutch prosecutors are not investigating a case of apparent cannibalism on a Dutch TV show in which presenters appeared to consume tiny pieces of each others' flesh that had been surgically removed.

Amsterdam prosecution spokeswoman Yvonne van der Leede said Thursday no investigation is under way. Thijs Verheij, spokesman for broadcaster BNN, said doctors and others involved in the stunt may have broken laws but police probably have more important things to do. BNN has insisted the case is not a hoax.

The Atlantic notes that cannibalism in the Netherlands isn't blatantly illegal:

Strangely enough, cannibalism is only illegal in the Netherlands when "it involves maltreatment or when it violates common decency," which means some people in the legal profession have spent a lot of time thinking about this in the past. Zeno described his piece of meat to be like eating a car tire.

The show "Guinea Pigs" aired Wednesday and showed footage of what appeared to be the removal of tissue from a buttock of one presenter and the waist of another. In front of a studio audience, the pair described cooked fatty tissue as rubbery and disgusting, and muscle as indistinguishable from other meat.