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The Dirty Little Secret of Premarin® Production- Part 1
The Greatness of A Nation and Its Moral Progress Can beJudged By The Way Its Animals Are Treated. Premarin® is a drug composed of conjugated estrogens for the treatment of menopause symptoms. As many as 9 million post menopausal women take the drug Premarin®, making it the most prescribed drug in the United States. According to the Physician's Desk Reference (1996), Premarin® is a mix of estrogens "obtained exclusively from natural sources," but there is nothing natural about the way Premarin® is obtained. It is harvested from the urine of pregnant horses (mares). Most women don't know that it is made from horse urine. If you have any doubts, crush a Premarin® pill and smell it for yourself. There will be no doubt as to its origin. The sad fact is that only the urine from pregnant mares is used to produce Premarin®. Often, pregnant mares are stallbound wearing a catheter bag to collect their urine for processing. Reports differ, some claim regular rotation of the mares for exercise and relief from the catheter, with generally decent care of the horses. Others report of abuse and intolerable living conditions with everything from chafing from the urine bags to crippling injuries. Drug companies are far more concerned with their profit margin than the welfare of a few horses. But it's more than just a few horses that are dying every year as a result of the production of Premarin®. It is estimated that there are as many as 75,000 Premarin® foals born each year to these pregnant mares. These foals are an unwanted byproduct of Premarin® production and many end up going to slaughter. Imagine you have a huge barn full of horses. Now imagine for argument's sake that every horse in the barn is pregnant. Now imagine you deal with this cycle of pregnancy and birth year after year after year. Where do you put the babies? Some of these farms can be quite large, producing anywhere from a handful to large numbers of foals every year. While a few of the fillies (female foals) are put into future production lines, most are not and the colts (male foals) have no value for Premarin® production. Yes, farmers can sometimes sell the foals but caring for them until they can be weaned costs money. Most would be lucky to recoup their costs when selling a foal. When you look at the numbers, how could any farmer keep up with that number of foals? These foals are quickly finding their way to auctions across the U.S. and Canada. This fact cannot be debated. With the number of killer buyers frequenting auctions to send horses to the slaughterhouses, their future is a bleak certainty. At every sale, a handful of people with loving homes buy Premarin® foals, but the odds are stacked against a large majority of these foals. Many may want to point the finger of blame to the farmers, but it needs to be pointed out that they are not who is ultimately responsible for this human made disaster. Wyeth Ayerst (WA), an American Home Products (AHP) drug company is the corporation responsible for the production of Premarin®. Wyeth Ayerst (AHP) knows all too well the reality of the situation; the farmers cannot be expected to have the space or finances to continually house such a large number of foals each year. Yet, Wyeth Ayerst (AHP) continues this vicious cycle of pregnancy and birth. It does not take a veterinarian to understand a pregnant mare will produce a foal, and these pregnancies are planned: no surprises here. The company's objective is to have a Premarin® farm keep as many mares pregnant as often as possible, in order to increase the output of the desired urine product. Yet Wyeth Ayerst (AHP) does not give any consideration to the foals in their production process. Ultimately, the foals are considered an unwanted byproduct of urine production. Part 2 on Premarin® in the May 3rd BEC Byline will address what you can do, including how to adopt a Premarin® foal and talking to your doctor about alternatives to Premarin®. A special thanks to the following organizations for letting us share information from their sites.
Spring Hill Horse Rescue
HiHopes Horse Haven This column originally appeared in March 2001 in the Chico Examiner. |
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