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The Dirty Little Secret of Premarin® Production, Part 2The drug, Premarin®, is a hormone-replacement pill used to treat symptoms of menopause. It is produced from the urine of pregnant mares (horses). After spending the majority of their pregnancies hooked to urine-catching pouches and tied in cramped stalls, the mares eventually give birth. The tens of thousands of baby horses (foals) produced in this manner are called Premarin® foals. Premarin® (PREgnant MARe urINe) or PMU foals are mere by-products of an industry producing the Hormone Replacement Therapy drug Premarin®. This drug is made from the urine of approximately 60,000 pregnant mares and their resulting foals are usually shipped to feedlots to be fattened up and on to slaughterhouses for their meat. When the mares can no longer conceive, they too are generally shipped for slaughter and replaced on the "pee lines". This meat is marketed overseas to European and Asian countries for human consumption, and with the current beef scare in Europe, the demand for horsemeat will inevitably increase. This cycle of pregnancy and birth and slaughter continues year after year. Premarin® Foals--How can you help?Please consider opening your home to one or more these foals. The Sacramento Bee recently included an excellent article on the plight of these young animals and their need for good homes. With help from the Montana Large Animal Sanctuary & Rescue, Inc., organizations such as the Folsom City Zoo have made a personal commitment to help. Along with adopting two foals in 2000 and with new foals to arrive in 2001, they are taking a stand and educating the public at the same time. For more information about the Premarin® foals and how to adopt through the Montana Large Animal Sanctuary & Rescue, contact the Folsom Zoo. You may request a free information packet on adoption from Spring Hill Horse Rescue at: Spring Hill Horse Rescue, 2617 Union Street Brandon, VT 05733 (802) 247-2857. Visit their website at springhillrescue.org. Feel free to copy any information provided on their website and pass it on to others. These foals are known to be wonderful horses. If you pre-register, the adoption fee is $575 ($675 for draft types) unless the price of horsemeat goes up considerably by September. This fee covers the purchase of the foal itself and other expenses incurred (travel, Coggins tests and health papers, vets, border and broker fees, etc.) as they come from Canada. If you cannot adopt a foal, please consider sponsoring the adoption of one or donating towards the purchase of one. Any moneys from these adoptions and benefit events are put toward the Premarin Foal Rescue Mission; this is a not-for-profit venue. Are there alternatives to Premarin®?FDA-approved alternatives have been on the market for 40 years making this cruelty unnecessary. It is not even necessary to produce this drug! Women are rarely told what and how Premarin® is made. There are many FDA-approved synthetic and plant-based estrogen replacement drugs which duplicate female human estrogen (17 Beta-estradiol) for human patients. The following are safe and effective alternatives to Premarin®: Plant-Based from yam and/or soybean: Climara, Estrace, Estraderm, Estratab, Estring, Menest, Ogen, Ortho-EST, and Vivelle. Synthetic: Alora, Estinyl, Fempatch and Ortho-Dienestrol. Estrogen/Androgen Combination: Estratest HS, and Estratest. If given the choice, most would not choose to be party to this cruelty and slaughter of these tens of thousands of horses and would opt for an alternative. Your health care should be determined by you and your doctor, in conjunction with knowledge and options. Wyeth Ayerst (WA), an American Home Products (AHP) drug company is the corporation responsible for the production of Premarin®. Given the outpouring of sympathy for the plight of the horses and their foals, the company must be aware of the situation. There are no explanations on their website, in fact they list Premarin® as a an "Ethical Pharmaceutical". To make matters worse they have taken legal steps to block the production of a generic substitute for Premarin®.
Let your voice be heard, urging them to stop their inhumane practices. Write a letter to:
Wyeth Ayerst
American Home Products Our only defense is education for the 9 million women that take Premarin®...education that will allow women to realize they have many options in synthetic hormone replacement drugs, the knowledge of where Premarin® comes from and the trail of slaughter and cruelty it leaves behind. Please don't turn away from this tragedy and pretend it doesn't exist because it does and will remain if we, as consumers, continue to be uneducated about what it is we put in our bodies and what is going on around us. The intention is not to ostracize Premarin® users, only to educate them. It was once written in an article that the entire PMU industry is an "American Disgrace" and many of us couldn't agree more. This column originally appeared in May 2001 in the Chico Examiner. |
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