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Premarin and Horse Slaughter: The Hidden
Story
By Cheryl Kucsera
The
estrogen replacement drug Premarin was introduced in
1942. Today, it is the most widely-prescribed drug for
women in North America, with about 9 million American
women currently taking some form of Premarin. Premarin,
as well as PremPro, PremPhase and PremPac are made by Wyeth,
formerly known as Wyeth-Ayerst.
While
Premarin is frequently prescribed to reduce the symptoms
of menopause, many of the women taking it -- and,
surprisingly, many of the doctors prescribing it -- are
unaware of the cruelty behind the drug.
The active
ingredient of Premarin, conjugated estrogens, is
obtained from the urine of pregnant mares.
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A message from Ron
Wilson
Thanks to my late father, a drug made
from animal waste is the most widely prescribed
drug in the world today. My father, Dr. Robert
A. Wilson, penned the influential 1960s book "Feminine Forever," which promoted, and
popularized, the idea of menopause as a disease.
Menopause is a "living decay," he wrote, which
often destroys a woman's "character as well as
her health." He added, "The unpalatable truth
must be faced that all postmenopausal women are
castrates. . A man remains a man until the very
end. The situation with a woman is very
different. Her ovaries become inadequate
relatively early in life. She is the only mammal
who cannot reproduce after middle age."
My father's solution: abolish menopause
altogether, through the use of estrogen drugs,
and women will stay "feminine forever." The idea
took. One hundred thousand copies of "Feminine
Forever" were sold in its first seven months of
publication, and in the late 1960s and early
1970s, newspapers and women's magazines ran
hundreds of articles promoting estrogen use.
Doctors across the country jumped on the
bandwagon, prescribing estrogen drugs for
millions of women. Unfortunately, the estrogen
drug that is most widely prescribed,
Wyeth-Ayerst's Premarin, has a secret ingredient
that my father had no trouble accepting: animal
suffering.
Premarin is made from the estrogen-rich
urine of pregnant horses. To collect the urine,
farmers in the United States and Canada confine
some 75,000 mares to tiny stalls for six months
at a stretch. Some of the horses receive
exercise every few weeks, but most don't see the
light of day for months. The mares must also
wear cumbersome urine-collection bags, which
chafe their legs and prevent them from ever
lying down comfortably.
Farmers are encouraged to limit
horses' access to water so that their urine will
yield more concentrated estrogens. A
veterinarian who works on pregnant mares' urine
(PMU) farms told inspectors from the United
States Department of Agriculture that this
practice can cause mares to suffer from "renal
and liver problems."
The 70,000 foals born on PMU farms
every year fare little better than their
mothers. Some are used to replace exhausted
mares--many of whom are forced to stand on the "pee line" for up to 20 years. But most of the
foals are sent to feedlots where they are
fattened, then slaughtered for meat. Claude
Bouvry, Canada's leading horsemeat exporter,
says the PMU industry is his "biggest source of
supply." Without the overseas demand for
horsemeat, Bouvry says, "there would be no
market for the young horses produced by [PMU]
mares."
These horses do not have to die.
Synthetic and plant-based estrogen drugs are
readily available, and many physicians prefer
them to Premarin. Small wonder: The Food and
Drug Administration cautions that "the urinary
estrogen excretion by pregnant mares is widely
variable." Studies have shown that the amount of
estradiol--one of the active hormones in
Premarin--can vary by almost 400 percent from
one batch to the next. Of even more concern,
some studies suggest that long-term treatment
with Premarin significantly increases breast
cancer risk.
Sadly, my father's contribution to
medical science resulted in a prescription for
animal cruelty. I encourage women of all ages to
learn more about Premarin and its many
alternatives.
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The Life for the PMU
Mares
The
farms where the raw product for Premarin is produced are
referred to as PMU farms (where "PMU" stands for
Pregnant Mares' Urine). There are more than 500 of these
PMU farms in Canada and the U.S., with between 75,000
and 80,000 mares standing on the "pee lines."
For the
final six months of their eleven-month pregnancies (from
October until March), the mares are confined to tiny
stalls -- stalls so small that they cannot turn around,
groom themselves, or lie down comfortably. They are
harnessed in with urine collection pouches, fitted over
their urethras, designed to collect the precious,
estrogen-rich urine. These urine collection devices, and
the manner by which they are attached to the mares'
bodies, can cause chafing of their legs, as well as
infections. These devices also make it practically
impossible for the horses to lie down -- as anything
beyond very limited movement would dislodge the
collection device.
PMU
mares get little or no exercise, with some of them
actually standing in that position for the entire six to
seven months. Standing for so long on cold, concrete
floors results in swollen, aching legs, fatigue, and
distress.
Since
Wyeth pays the farmers according to the
concentration of estrogen in the urine, farmers
deliberately deprive the horses of water in order to
produce urine with as high a concentration of estrogen
as possible. This leaves the mares in a constant state
of thirst. Liver and kidney disease are common in PMU
mares.
While the life expectancy for most horses is
well into their twenties and thirties, this is not the
case for the PMU mare. Those mares who are considered to
be "good producers" may find themselves standing on the
"pee lines" for as long as twelve to fourteen years
before they finally burn out -- at which point they will
be scrapped and sent to the slaughter auctions for meat.
Those mares who don't become impregnated will also find
themselves being sent to the slaughter auctions.
Life
for the mares on the PMU farms is so hard that 25% of
them are replaced every year.
There
is no official government regulation for the treatment
of PMU mares, only a "Code of Practice" written by Wyeth for the PMU farmers to follow. This "Code
of Practice" is voluntary, not mandatory.
Living Byproducts of the
Industry
Sadly,
the foals born to these mares are usually worth less
than the urine their mothers produce. To the PMU
farmers, they are worth more dead than alive. Just as
the male calves born to dairy cows are considered to be
a byproduct of the dairy industry, the foals of PMU
mares are considered to be nothing more than a living
byproduct of Premarin.
Some
foals will die soon after birth, unable to survive the
bitterly cold temperatures of the prairies. Of those who
survive, the majority of them will be sent to auction
where they will be sold for slaughter.
A
filly foal has a less than 1-in-10 chance of not being
sent to slaughter. Some will be kept to replace the
worn-out mares on the PMU farms; the rest will be sent
to the slaughter auction. A colt foal will have a less
than 1-in-50 chance of not being sent to slaughter.
Welcome to The World of "Price-per-Pound"
At the
auction, PMU foals and worn out mares will join other
horses who are "unwanted" or "surplus" - most of whom
will be sent to slaughter. The PMU foals are only
between two and four months old when they are sent to
auction. Too young to be weaned, these tiny foals can be
regularly observed trying to nurse off each other. The
mothers of some of the foals are here to be auctioned
off as well, but once they arrive at the auction, the
mares and foals will be segregated and kept in separate
pens. All day long, you can hear the heartbreaking sound
of separated mothers and babies calling plaintively to
one another.
The
tiny PMU foals are herded into the ring in lots --
sometimes with as many as 30 or 40 in a group. Without
the comforting presence of their mothers, the babies,
confused and consumed with fear, panic and huddle
together. Regardless of how many foals there are in the
ring, they are bid on and purchased as a lot (or group)
with the price being determined "by the pound."
Almost
all the foals are bought by "killer buyers" (middlemen
for the slaughterhouses). Auction workers herd the
frightened foals through the auction ring and then onto
cramped trailers with canes and electric cattle prods.
Shaking with terror, the babies scream for their
mothers, who will never come to protect and comfort
them.
It is estimated that 70,000 PMU foals are sent
to auction each year -- with MOST of them going to
slaughter.
Other
equines at the auction include race horses who suffered
injury or just weren't fast enough; miniature horses,
ponies; donkeys, mules; draft horses; wild horses;
stolen horses; young; old, sick and infirm; trusting
companion horses and ponies whose humans lost interest
or could no longer afford them, .... Many "summer camp"
ponies can be found at these auctions, too, because it's
cheaper to send them off to auction and purchase new
ponies each year rather than pay for their upkeep during
the off-season. Most of these animals will be bought by
"killer buyers."
Because "killer buyers" are paid by the pound for
the horses they deliver to the slaughterhouse, healthy
horses, in good body condition, are preferred. The
light-boned breeds that have a good proportion of
meat-to-bone, such as Thoroughbreds, Saddlebreds, and
Quarter Horses are especially in demand.
No
matter how good, how beautiful, or how young, any horse
at auction, whose bid price falls into the range that
the "killer buyers" are willing to pay, is a slaughter
candidate. The only thing that matters to the buyer is
how many pounds of usable meat will come off the horse.
"Killer buyers" will buy old and sick horses, but only
when the price is low enough to make it worthwhile to
transport them to the slaughterhouses.
"The Last Ride"
The
cruelty of horse slaughter is not limited to the actual
procedure of killing the animals. Transport to the
slaughterhouse is a heart-wrenching
nightmare.
The "killer buyer" travels from auction to auction,
purchasing horses. His goal: to pack as many animals as
possible onto the trailer. When the trailer is full, he
will take the horses on their "last ride" - the one that
delivers them to their final destination: the
slaughterhouse.
There are only a handful of
equine slaughterhouses in Canada and only two in the
United States. What this means for horses is that they
will have to be transported very long distances to
slaughter --- usually without food, water or rest, and
often in extreme cold or heat.
New Holland is a
livestock auction in Pennsylvania. It's famous -- or
rather, infamous -- for its horse auctions. The closest
equine slaughterhouses to New Holland are nearly 600
miles away -- in Canada. While many horses purchased at
New Holland will be transported to a slaughterhouse in
Canada, many others will be transported to the U.S.
slaughterhouses: Bel-Tex and Dallas Crown. Both of these
Belgian-owned slaughterhouses are located in Texas --
and each of them is approximately 1,500 miles from New
Holland, PA!
Wherever the horses are headed, their last ride
will be nothing short of a living nightmare.
Many states have no real laws governing the
transport of horses. This means horses are often forced
onto "double decker" livestock trailers, which were not
designed for horse transport. These trucks have low
ceilings which means the horses can't stand up in a
position that is comfortable for them or raise their
heads. If a horse, an animal with a very high center of
gravity, can't raise his or her head, he or she can't
maintain their balance.
In addition, the manner in
which horses are transported to slaughter does not
accommodate their unique temperaments. The "killer
buyer" will pack the trailer with a mix of horses of
various temperaments, conditions, breeds, types, and
ages: young and healthy; old, sick and infirm;
stallions, geldings, mares, foals, pregnant mares (some
of whom are very close to their due date); miniature
horses, thoroughbreds, draft horses, ponies, donkeys,
and mules. The forcing of stallions, mares, and foals
together means fights will inevitably break out,
resulting in serious injuries and deaths. If a horse is
acting up, biting and kicking others, the killer buyer
may wrap the horse's muzzle with duct tape or bailing
wire. Often, unruly horses are deliberately blinded by
gouging out their eyes or shooting them in the eyes with
a BB gun.
During
the trip, the flooring of the trailer becomes
increasingly slippery and slimy with manure and urine.
In addition, waste from the upper level rains down on
animals in the lower compartment. Exhausted horses,
desperately trying to maintain their footing as the
trailer careens along Interstate highways, will trample
the inevitable downed horses, who lost their footing
hours -- and miles -- earlier. Foals, ponies, miniature
horses and other small equines have been crushed to
death when a larger horse has fallen on them. Pregnant
mares have given birth to foals on the trailers -- while
they're en route - with the helpless newborns getting
trampled to death underfoot.
The Final
Destination
By the time the trailer
arrives at the slaughterhouse, the very long and
harrowing trip has taken its toll. The horses who have
managed to survive the trip are completely exhausted,
starving, dying of thirst, in pain, and frightened out
of their minds. Many of them will have sustained
injuries -- such as broken limbs or gouged out eyes.
Some of them didn't survive the trip. When the trailer
is unloaded, those horses who can still walk are
unloaded first. Then, a rope or chain is used to drag
the dead and downed - yet still alive -- horses out of
the trailer.
Contrary to what most people think, horse
slaughter is NOT for pet food! Horse slaughter is for
HUMAN consumption! While slaughterhouses DO sell the
scraps that are unfit for human consumption to pet food
manufacturers, the horse slaughter industry is a
business that exists to make a profit from the sale of
meat from slaughtered horses. However, horse meat isn't
eaten in the U.S. So, who is eating our horses?
The
horse slaughter industry in North America is strictly an
export business, with the flesh of all the horses killed
in U.S. and Canadian slaughterhouses being sent to
Europe, Mexico and Japan, where horse flesh is
considered a delicacy.
As the horses enter the
slaughterhouse, they can see, hear and smell other
horses who are dying and dead. This causes many of them
to balk, but slaughterhouse workers use cattle prods on
horses who refuse to keep moving.
A frightened mare
waits in the chute that leads to the knock box. Perhaps
she's one of the burned out PMU mares - or maybe she was
someone's trusting companion. Whoever she is, the door
to the knock box just opened and she's forced to enter.
Trembling with fear, she slips and falls on the blood,
urine and manure covered floor. The moment she scrambles
to her feet, a slaughterhouse worker hits her in the
skull with the captive bolt. The aim of the captive bolt
is NOT to kill the animal, but only to immobilize the
animal or render them unconscious. It may take more than
one blow -- perhaps two or three - before the horse
collapses.
The
horse is then dropped through the chute and onto a
conveyor belt where she is shackled by a hind leg,
hoisted up and hung upside down. The horse is still
alive as she is hung upside down; often, the animal is
still conscious at this point.
At the
next station, the horse's throat is cut and the horse
bleeds to death. The reason it is necessary for the
horse to still be alive when his or her throat is cut is
that, in order for the meat to be fit for human
consumption, the blood must be pumped out by the
animal's still-beating heart.
This
is the fate of more than 100,000 horses in North America
every year.
Undercover investigations at slaughterhouses have
uncovered the following:
- Horses with broken legs
- Horses with eyes gouged out
- Stolen horses
- Full term pregnant mares
- Pregnant mares giving birth while waiting in
line to be slaughtered
- Live full term foals falling onto the killing
room floor when their mother's belly is cut
open.
- Foals with their hearts still beating, thrown
in the trash.
It may
surprise you to learn that horse slaughter is generally
accepted among people who raise horses, including the
horse racing industry and the North American Equine
Ranching Information Council. They see slaughter as a "necessary evil" for disposing of unwanted and surplus
horses. But actually, horses are slaughtered because
there is a demand for horse meat, and the
slaughterhouses kill horses to meet that
demand.
How does a horse end up in this
horrible situation?
Remember: NO horse is exempt from the possibility
of going to slaughter.
A perfect example of this
is the tragic story of the legendary thoroughbred,
Exceller.
Regarded as one of the greatest racehorses of all
time -- with career earnings of more than $1.6 million - he is
the only horse to have beaten two Triple Crown winners
(Seattle Slew and Affirmed in the 1978 Jockey Club Gold
Cup). In August 1997, Exceller's name was listed on the
ballot for election to the National Museum of Racing and
Hall of Fame. When an effort was made to track down the
former champion, it was discovered that he died in a
slaughterhouse, just three months earlier, on April 7th.
On August 9, 1999, Exceller was inducted into the
Hall of Fame. However, his plaque in the museum makes no
mention as to the manner of his death -- only that he
died in 1997.
Many of the horses who are sent to
slaughter were once someone's companion. When someone
gives up a horse, they assume that he or she will end up
in good hands. But when a horse enters "the market", he
or she enters a different world -- a world of auctions
and price-for-pound, of "killer buyers" and
slaughterhouses. As one horse farmer said, "If an animal
sells for less than $700, it's probably on its way to
the slaughterhouse." Their former owners have no idea of
the pain, fear, and suffering their horses will endure
before being slaughtered.
Sadly,
horses sent to slaughter have practically NO protection.
Even states that have passed laws
that were intended
to prevent some of these abuses - California,
Connecticut, New York, Vermont and Virginia -- don't
really enforce them. This is evidenced by the continuing
use of double-decker trailers -- even where they are
illegal, as in New York.
One of
the repercussions of Europe's hoof and mouth disease
crisis, as well as the fear of "Mad Cow Disease", has
been an increased demand for horse flesh from North
America. The price of exported horse meat is nearly
double what it was last year -- up from 45 to now 80
cents a pound. As a result, many PMU farmers are no
longer bringing unwanted foals and burned-out mares to
auction, but are selling them directly to the
slaughterhouses.
To those who have horses -- beware!
-- this increased demand for horse flesh puts companion
horses at greater risk of being stolen! Remember: The
horses most in demand are strong, healthy ones. Illinois Horse
ONLINE, as well as The Humane Society of the
U.S., have information on their web sites for
deterring horse theft.
No horse wants to end up
on someone's plate.
Last year, 10 billion farmed
animals were killed for food. Those cows, pigs,
chickens, sheep, goats, turkeys, ducks, geese,
rabbits,... no more willingly gave up their lives to end
up on someone's plate than these horses do.
Please
know that, whatever the species, ALL animals experience
immense suffering and unimaginable horror at the
slaughterhouse, as well as on the factory farm, at the
auctions and during transport.
What can we do to help the
PMU horses?
- First, don't take Premarin. If you take
Premarin, ask your doctor to prescribe a non-Premarin
Hormone Replacement Therapy drug.
- Consider plant-based alternatives to Premarin.
Most are made from soy or yams.
- Try
the natural approach to menopause: a low-fat,
vegetarian diet and regular exercise.
- Boycott
Wyeth, the maker of Premarin.
- Boycott Wal-Mart Stores. Wal-Mart has been
distributing a video promoting Premarin that features
Wyeth spokesperson Lauren Hutton.
- Educate others (relatives, friends, doctors,
nurses) about the cruelty behind the PMU
industry.
- Wear a pin to help spread the word. United
Animal Nations has two pins to help spread the
message: "I've Switched" and "Make the Switch."
- Write Letters to the Editor telling of the
cruelty behind the industry.
- Support organizations, such as United Animal
Nations and American Horse Defense Fund, who have
anti-Premarin campaigns.
- Subscribe to United Animal Nations' email newsletter, PMULines.
What can we do to help fight
horse slaughter?
- First, educate others about horse slaughter.
- Don't buy articles made from horse hide, such
as: "Corinthian Leather"; clothing and accessories,
such as purses, vests, jackets, boots and shoes, made
from pony skin (which is usually labeled "pony"); or
brushes and other items made from horse hair.
- Don't support businesses that send their
unwanted equines to slaughter. This would include:
attending or betting on horse races; rodeos;
horse-drawn carriage rides; pony rides; summer camps
with ponies; tourism in Amish country, including
bed-and-breakfast stays on Amish farms. If you visited
horse auctions in Amish country, such as New Holland,
PA or Sugarcreek, OH, you would see many former Amish
draft horses, mules and carriage or buggy horses. The
Amish are extremely hard on animals, as is evidenced
by these equines who have been run into the ground.
- Boycott
Wyeth, the maker of Premarin.
- Support organizations that work toward the goal
of ending horse slaughter, such as HOOF PAC and the American Horse Defense
Fund.
- Subscribe to HOOF PAC's action
alert list.
- Write Letters to the Editor to raise awareness
about the issue of horse slaughter.
- Support efforts in your state to oppose horse
slaughter. California passed a law that outlaws the
selling of horses for slaughter. If several states
prohibit horse slaughter, working towards a federal
ban would then be possible.
- Please write to your Federal Representatives
and tell them to support H.R. 3781, the American Horse
Slaughter Prevention Act. This bill would not only
ban horse slaughter in the U.S., but would also
prohibit the interstate and international transport of
all equines for slaughter. Because American horses are
currently being sent to Canada, Mexico and Japan for
slaughter, it is imperative that the bill also include
wording that would prohibit transport.
With
everyone's support we may be able to bring an end to
this suffering.
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