ABOUT THE HORSES
As of 2001, approximately 35,00 to 40,000 mares are kept pregnant year after year in order to produce
Premarin. The quality of their care and the tragic fate of many of their offspring have been animal welfare issues for several years.
There were about 480 PMU farms, located mostly in rural areas in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, but with the
international outcry over the increased health risks, many of these farms have been or are being phased out. While at one time
there were nearly 50 PMU barns in the United States, located in North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Indiana, these farms
have been or are being phased out. Canadian PMU farms continue to be the leading provider of PMU for hormone replacement therapy.
Every year in September, auctions are held to sell the large number of surplus foals, typically when they are between 3 and 4 months
of age. Many of the approximately 30,000 foals sold at auction end up as meat in butcher shops in Japan, Belgium, France, Italy,
Germany Holland and Switzerland.
Every year, the mares are kept in barns from October until April in narrow tie-stalls, fitted with rubber collection pouches
suspended on pulleys. They cannot turn around, lie flat out at night to sleep deeply or roll in the dirt. Exercise is unregulated
and minimal. However, recent interest in the regulation of the treatment of the mares has led to better care, but it is difficult
to balance the collection needs and the needs of the pregnant mares making it nearly (if not completely) impossible to devise methods
that meet the collection needs and the humane treatment of the mares.
A growing number of grassroots animal rescue groups are helping to find homes for the approximately 30,000 "surplus" foals but this is
a formidable task. It is estimated that about 500 PMU foals were rescued at the September 2000 auctions and brought to homes in the
United States.
ABOUT WOMEN'S HEALTH
Of the FDA-approved Hormone Replacement Therapy drugs currently on the market, there are very few made from urine.
These include Premerine, Prempro and Premphase.
Around 10 million women take Premarin. For decades it has been the most widely prescribed drug in America (in 2000 it fell to number two)
. Sales of Premarin-based drugs (including Prempac, Prempro and Premphase) reached $1.9 billion in 2000.
A growing number of studies have shown that standard prescription estrogens (Premarin, plant-based and synthetic estrogens) can begin
to raise breast cancer risk after several years of use. Rarely are women sufficiently warned of this added health risk or informed of
alternatives.
In 1994, when two smaller drug companies, Duramed and Barr Laboratories, applied to the FDA with a cheaper, plant-based generic estrogen
with the same active ingredients as Premarin, Wyeth-Ayerst filed a petition against it. In 1997, after heavy and costly lobbying, the
FDA refused to license the generics.
Amy and her filly
PMU/Premarin Mascot filly, Dulcinea, rescued by AHDF
member Susan Lynch, Esq. of Washington, D.C.
READ MORE ABOUT PREMARIN
"Hormones and Horses" by Ray Kellosalmi, M.D., Animal Watch magazine of the ASPCA, Summer 1998
"Update: Alternatives to Premarin" by Ray Kellosalmi, M.D., Animal Watch magazine of the ASPCA,
Summer 2001
A fascinating book that brings together Premarin, hormone replacement therapy and the women's
health movement is The Menopause Industry by Sandra Coney. Hunter House, Inc., Publishers, 1-800-266-5592
Vancouver Sun, Sept. 2001 (THE ARTICLE ON THE AUCTIONS THIS SEPTEMBER)
Taking Hormones and Women's Health: Choices, Risks and Benefits
(2000 edition) National Women's Health Network, Washington DC, 202-628-7814 $10 members; $15 non-members.
Their web site states, "In easily accessible language, it explains the scientific evidence that
supports (or in some cases doesn't support) the medical recommendations that women hear from their health care providers, friends
and relatives. "The switch from HRT as treatment to HRT as preventive therapy has occurred without debate or justification. It is a
shift of the profoundest significance, yet has gone unremarked and undiscussed." Sandra Coney, The Menopause Industry
"The abuse of horses in the production of Premarin is a total denial of our debt to the horse and
the role horses have played in the exploration, conquest and utilization of our planet. What we are doing is unthinkable ----
and unforgivable." Roger Caras, President, ASPCA, 1991 to 1999. "That a substance derived from horse urine is 'natural' to the human
body is simply a tribute to 50 years of successful advertising," Phillip Warner, Gynecologist, Los Gatos, CA"
"That a substance derived from horse urine is 'natural'
to the human body is simply a tribute to 50 years of successful advertising,"
Phillip Warner, Gynecologist, Los Gatos, CA
"Sadly, PMU foals, only a by-product of the drug industry, are usually worth far less than is the urine their mothers produce."
former Director of Equine Protection, HSUS
"No industry, particularly one dealing with living things, should be virtually self-policing and immune from public inquiry." Frances Russell, Winnipeg Free Press
Women's Health and Ethics Coalition
AHDF has brought together a number of American and Canadian horse and animal protection nonprofits to act in a unified effort to
combat the PMU industry and to educate doctors and women about the plentiful alternatives to the Premarin / PremPro family of products.
Click HERE
for an article on Premarin from Dr. Kellosalmi and Tracy Basile, courtesy
of Conscious Choice.
Doctors no longer have to give women
Premarin and other products produced from pregnant mares' urine (PMU) in order
to prescribe conjugated estrogens to treat the symptoms of menopause.
Please spread the word! Click here to see a table of alternatives to Premarin!
Make a difference and
join us, the American Horse Defense Fund
Justice for Horses and Just Horses – we’re here for the long haul
