HC Deb 20 November 1987 vol 122 c719W
Mr. Corbett

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many horses used by the Metropolitan police and retired in each of the past three years have been sold for the purposes of serum production or research or for other experimental purposes; and what are the other destinations for horses unwanted for further police purposes.

Mr. Douglas Hogg

I understand from the Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis that none of the police horses retired in the past three years has been sold for purposes of serum production, research or for other experimental purposes. Horses unfit for work are retired to recognised rest homes, humanely destroyed on the advice of' a veterinary surgeon and in the presence of a mounted branch officer, or sometimes sold to mounted branch officers. Horses found to be temperamentally unsuitable are sold at the Reading horse sales.