Remember Premarin, PMU Foals, and the Rescues?
posted by citizen.K on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 / 
Print & Hang in the Barn
So, here is yet another example of where the activist, the rescuer, the anti-slaughter people, and all the desperate pleas to help all the horses falls apart. Maybe I’m just that far out of the loop or I missed some big HUGE, enthusiastic news story that swept the horse world away…
…buuuuuuuuuuuut, I couldn’t find that story. I can’t seem to find any information regarding Premarin mares, PMU foals, or anything other rescue news pertaining to the horse urine industry newer than 2004.
What happened?
Did a more interesting, ground breaking, newsworthy, or noteworthy cause come along? Slaughter didn’t end in the US until 2007, so maybe all the people working on the Premarin issue put their time and energy into that.
But aren’t many, if not most, Premarin farms in Canada? Wouldn’t that mean foals and some mares are still GOING TO SLAUGHTER? Maybe horse slaughter protesting is only important in the US? I mean, I guess that’s Canada’s problem, and we all know Canadian horses aren’t as important as American horses.
I’m stumped.
I will say, from my research, all I can tell is that Premarin is still manufactured and prescribed, there don’t seem to be any active Premarin rescues (at least not online), and the only recent PMU rescue information is from the new Humane Society of the Untied States Horse Sactuary and Rescue Facility opening in Oregon.
Then I stumbled upon a story, shadowed, not very obvious, concerning Canadian horse welfare. The information was regarding the population of PMU horses (both mares and foals). Apparently, in 2002, a research study concluded long-term, high doses of hormones were putting (human) women at risk for breast cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots. This prompted a new Premarin drug formula containing lower hormone levels, and thusly, less Pregnant Mare Urine was needed to produce the drug.
The cut in pharmaceutical production put farmers out of business and more importantly, horses out of a job (a terrible job, but still a job). Approximately 20,000 horses had to find “new homes” throughout Canada and the United States. In some other various articles, snippets, and archived rescue data between 2003-2004, I found many rescues going to sale houses, directly to kill buyers, and slaughterhouses, to buy many PMU mares. Who is to say how many horses found homes, or found their end on a European dinner plate? Obviously, no clear data exists to answer that question.
However, the nice, friendly, ever giving Wyeth pharmaceutical company whom has always cared about horse welfare formed a seven-member advisory board to help find homes for the horses that worked so hard to make them lots of money. Here is a quote from one of the board members:
- “Many of the mares went to embryo transfer facilities as recipient mares, while the younger horses wound up in various riding programs. Although some found their way to the Bouvry slaughter plant in Fort Macleod, the vast majority were placed in new homes in the eastern and western United States.”
Gee, how many?
Honestly, NONE of those horses should have wound up at a slaughter house. The kind folks from the nice, friendly pharmaceutical company should have paid to either euthanize the animals OR have them live out their days somewhere nice (though we would hate for a “slave-care” line item to cut into drug company profits).
Currently, there are still 5,600 mares on the Premarin production line. Lucky them. It’s too bad they don’t have anyone campaigning for their quality of life increases anymore. I’m sure the pregnant mares are much happier now. I’m sure it’s all nice and cozy for them. I mean the “ranches” have websites! They must not be hiding anything, right?
Yup, that could be it. The hard core Premarin activists must simply have been appeased. Makes sense that none of the existing Premarin mares are foals are being mistreated! I mean, come on! The non-profit North American Equine Ranching Information Council (NAERIC) is on the job! They’re not a shill for the pharmaceutical industry, are they?
By the way, please go to the NAERIC website: how creepy is that? Street drug dealers host better business fronts.
And so because of the Premarin industry, we still have an unknown standard of pregnant mare care, questionable ends for each foal, and up to 5,600 “by-product” foals produced every year needing homes. All this for the barbaric practice of collecting pregnant mare urine for use in a silly drug with MANY other synthetic options.
I’m not saying I have space in my back yard for all (or any) of the unwanted Premarin foals, and I certainly don’t have the time to secretly infiltrate the NAERIC ranks, but to all the former activisty people who took up the Premarin cause in the early 2000’s like it was the second coming (of Elvis):
Is the Premarin rescue job really done?
Or from a gratis marketing level, is has the Premarin cause simply been played out?
8 Responses to “Remember Premarin, PMU Foals, and the Rescues?”
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August 2nd, 2008 at 12:28 am
I am also somewhere confused about the Premarin siutation. The only thing I know is that there IS a synthetic version of the drug that works JUST AS WELL as the PMU version, so there is absolutely NO REASON to keep the PMU industry alive. I have seen a few of the products of PMU rescue and they seem to be decent riding horses and pets. I think their conformation is questionable for performance work, but the ones I’ve seen seem to be pretty easy keepers and have good feet. I always encourage people to look into adopting one if they tell me a TB is too hot for them.
On a side note, all the people I’ve met so far who have adopted PMU horses (foals, mares or otherwise) seem to be natural horsemanship or clicker-training people. The one website I know is The International Blessed Broodmare Project and they have a really cool story.
August 2nd, 2008 at 5:09 pm
When Wyeth slashed Premarin production circa 2003, they used each farm’s “unneeded horse policy” when determining which farms they were going to keep buying PMU from. The farms with the best record of finding homes for their foals are still in production, and the farms that sold foals to slaughter had their contracts canceled and were closed.
Prior to this thinning of the herd, there were many farms that used unregistered draft stock (of any breed) and had unregistered foals that were considered a “byproduct” of the PMU production and sent directly to slaughter as meat. Other (better run, better managed) farms used registered stock, registered their foals, worked with rescues to make sure the foals were bought and given good homes, etc. There were farms that bred purebred warmbloods, rather than draft horses. Etc. These farms have sales channels for their foals, and so their foals were never part of the “rescue” operation. These farms also have humane treatment for the mares - they get turned out every day, etc. The mares are as well cared for (if not better cared for) as most show horses.
I’m on quite a few equine lists, and I also recall someone saying a family member was on Premarin and had tried the synthetic alternative but that it didn’t work as well for her and she went back on Premarin. The drugs are not identical, and so there is still a need for this drug. I’m not against the production of Premarin as long as the horses are handled humanely.
As far as I’m concerned, the Horse Racing Industry is a much contributor to the problem of inhumane treatment of “unwanted horses” than the Premarin industry ever was. As warmbloods become more and more popular in eventing and jumping, OTTBs are becoming harder and harder to find homes for.
August 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm
JC Dill - do you work for Wyeth or one of the PMU farms? That is one of the more ignorant statements I have seen regarding the care and overall management of a questionable industry.
Have you been to the PMU farms to see how the mares are cared for? Or, are you just taking their word for it?
I have personally seen many of the horses, the “warmbloods”, and others produced from these reputable, good natured PMU farms. These are not nice horses, these are not horses that offer any superior conformation, temperament, OR athletic ability.
A group of friends and I went to an “auction” for these warmbloods, not knowing they were PMU foals. This auction had advertised young sport horses starting at $500 stating it was a massive herd reduction sale. There were a lot of horses from yearlings to mostly 2-4 year olds.
These sale horses had major conformation flaws, very crooked legs, poor angles (shoulder, hip), along with mismatched parts (head that didn’t fit with the neck, that didn’t fit with the back, that didn’t fit with the legs).
I have seen a dozen or so PMU foals that were “rescued” or bought for hopeful sport horse prospects. Some of which had very unpredictable temperaments that were not suitable for even an intermediate horse person. Many had very crooked legs that would debilitate any sport career. Sure, there was one nice looking gelding, with a halfway decent temperament. But, he ended up have OCD lesions in both hocks.
I didn’t see this article comparing the PMU industry to the Thoroughbred industry. There is nothing to compare.
I do see that the PMU industry as detrimental to the horse world. Along with questionable care of the mares. Plus, they are adding more horses that need homes into the population. Something we don’t need any more of. But, apparently the premarin rescues have better things to spend their time on. Or maybe they just have rescue ADD.
August 3rd, 2008 at 8:07 pm
My concern with JC Dill’s statement comes from the fact that there is no actual legislation involving humane treatment of PMU mares or their foals. From what I understand about the science, the only way to collect enough urine from the mares is to tie them up with UCDs attached to their vulvas and restrict their water intake for large periods of time. I guess PMU farms would be OK if it were a bunch of responsible breeders running around a field with a bucket and waiting for a free-range horse with free access to water to pee. But there’s no law requiring that. In order to believe JC Dill, I would have to simply take Wyeth’s word for it. And that seems naive and ignorant–two things that I can’t seem to find in my personality traits.
August 4th, 2008 at 12:08 am
Thanks Bonnie & Kay, you beat me to it.
Someone has a very, very tight hold on anyone that might have something not-so-nice to say about the PMU industry. No one touting PMU reform has actually visited PMU farms.
So, who is Wyeth paying off?
JC Dill, we call shenanigans on you. Nice try.
I too, like Bonnie, have seen many examples of these “well bred sport horse” PMU horses. Not so well bred.
And this article isn’t a comparison to any other humane problem within the horse industry. It is more of a question. What is REALLY going on within the PMU industry, and, what happened to all the people involved in exposing the evils of PMU?
Lets face it, PMU is still manufactured, and all the information out there on the PMU “industry” is, well, weird. The information is inconsistent with zero actual documentation of the condition of the mares OR the placement of the foals (/”industry byproducts”).
It’s interesting to read about newer PMU “rescues”: they seem to tip-toe about even calling themselves as such. The (strange) rescue organizations even claim the PMU ranchers have developed respectable breeding programs to meet an industry need.
BUT, then the same non-”rescues” are still picking foals up at auctions
–
Here are a couple whack PMU “rescue”/ not-a-rescue organizations proving PMU industry produced unwanted horses. Who is paying these guys off to perform rescue operations BUT backpedal about the “rescue” moniker?
Additionally, old PMU rescues operated as crusaders to fight the PMU industry altogether; new “rescues” speak as if neutered.
Spring Hill Rescue
- obviously proves there is a need to find homes for unwanted PMU foals
Mustanges 4 US
- “placement [group], not rescues [anymore]…”
PMU Rescue
- not a rescue, just an organization to “promote and facilitate adoption as an accessible option for [PMU] ranchers ”
PMU Acquisition Network
- these guys claim PMU “ranchers” have developed a respectable breeding program, yet the non-rescue provides foster homes, adoptions, AND a subsidy program for people who buy a PMU foal or adult PMU at auction!
December 12th, 2008 at 8:27 pm
I have to say though that it is possible to get a good quality pleasure horse from the PMU ranches. About six years ago a lady that I worked for found about about the PMU foals and decided to buy nine foals from one of the ranches. Out of those nine foals only one of them did not have good conformation or temperament. The rest of them were wonderful to work with and three of them ended up making fantastic kid horses while the majority of the others had very predictable temperaments.
April 27th, 2009 at 11:54 am
OMFG - I had no idea about the NAERIC group. That is just sick that they try to legitimize this crap by creating a “registry” and touting the “advantage.” I have personally seen several dozen PMU rescue foals and I can tell you that NONE of them had decent conformation (even overlooking their clearly wormy condition). The mares aren’t bred for the end product (the foals), they are bred for their urine, so the foals are mongrel crosses. Even the PMU rescue sickens me, bcs I have a queasy feeling that by taking the babies off their hands, we are making it too easy for the farm in Canada to keep right on producing them. Same as if we bought illicit drugs from dealers to keep them off the street. Unpalatable and not a real solution. Not to mention those poor mares in standing stalls hooked to all sorts of collection tubing. Sick, sick, sick. You are right, not enough being said about it, no pressure on the pharma to find another way to do things.
April 27th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
Here’s this from the article at Horse.com:
>> Another requirement in place for PMU mares is that they receive exercise by being turned out on a regular basis during the collection season. It appeared in conversations that many of the mares received more exercise than the required two hours every two weeks. <<
Did I say SICK?!