Thousands of horses changed hands Monday at the traditional Skaryszew horse fair in Poland, despite protesting by animal rights activists.

The activists aimed to stop horses from being sold at slaughter at the 300-year-old annual event, Reuters news agency reported. Allegations from Ireland that Poland supplied the horsemeat found in its Tesco supermarket brand frozen hamburgers helped fuel the protests.

"A horse should be a companion, not an animal for slaughter," Reuters quoted an animal rights group leader as saying. "We are fighting for a change in the law. We have to change it."

Poland has denied any involvement in the horsemeat scandal, however. Last week its minister of agriculture, Stanislaw Kalemba, announced that there was “not the slightest bit of evidence” that his country supplied the meat in question, Polish news source TheNews.pl reported