Meat from horses used in laboratory procedures was sold as fit for human consumption and landed on French dinner tables, investigators said Monday.
Officers from France’s National Gendarmerie, accompanied by food safety and veterinary investigators, carried out raids in 11 regions in southern France before dawn, arresting 21 people, according to a statement.
An official, speaking on condition of anonymity because details had not yet been released, said the animals had been used in laboratories — including that of drugmaker Sanofi-Pasteur — and then, instead of being destroyed, ended up in the food chain.
Sanofi told Le Parisien newspaper on Monday that the horses were used to create antibodies against rabies and tetanus among others. The company, which says it cooperated in the investigation, says it has resold about 200 horses in the past three years to vet schools, individuals and professionals.
The company says the lab uses horses for about three years before re-selling them, tagged and certified. It says it does not carry out testing on the animals, only make lifesaving medicines.
Benoit Hamon, France’s consumer affairs minister, told RTL radio that it was a question of food safety, rather than simple fraud.
Hamon drew a sharp distinction between Monday’s raids and a scandal earlier this year in which inexpensive — but edible — horse meat was passed off as beef and sold in supermarkets and restaurants around Europe.
“There are horses that should end up neither on your plate nor at the butcher, and that’s the work of this investigation” he says.
—
Tuesday's Horse 
This is sick. Bad enough they eat horsemeat, which i would rather starve than do, but to sell animals that have been used for research?!
LikeLike