Research Horses Sold To Butchers For Meat, French Police Say

In a second horsemeat scandal to rock Europe this year, French police raided a giant horsemeat trafficking network early this morning, The Local reports.

The illegal horsemeat ring allegedly sold some 200 horses in the last three years, all used first for vaccine experiments before being sold to butchers who then sold the horsemeat for consumption.

According to the Daily Mail, the horses were treated in laboratories run by Sanofi Pasteur, a pharmaceutical company. Meat used for scientific experiments should not be sold for human consumption by law, with meat being reused for blood in vaccines, but the police suspect that the meat, sold illegally, was used in frozen food products in Europe.

Police have arrested around 21 people associated with the scandal, expecting the number to go up. Those arrested included three vets and meat dealers. No word on how prevalent the horsemeat contamination ended up being, but the last horsemeat test found that almost one in 20 beef products were contaminated with horsemeat.