An over-abundance of baby horses is the result of this treacherous hormone replacement therapy drug prescribed to women throughout the world. A drug so dangerous, it should not be allowed on the market! Manufactured by a corporation that has recently been forced to pull some of its drugs off the market because they knew the risk of death and did not disclose it to the public, Wyeth (Premarin’s manufacturer) employs a multi-million dollar ad agency to promote its constantly tarnished reputation among the public at large, prescribing physicians, and politicians alike. A drug so dangerous, in 2002, researchers abandoned governmental studies of 160,000 women when it was found that Premarin raised the risk of stroke by 41%, the risk of heart attack by 29 %, the risk of breast cancer by 26%. Other medical conditions attributed to the use of Premarin are dementia and deep vein thrombosis.

USESR recommends asking your physician for one of the many synthetic alternatives to Premarin. These alternatives, their manufacturers, and the forms they are available in, are categorized nicely on the Equine Rescue Resource website. Sometimes, veterinarians will prescribe Premarin to dogs who are suffering from incontinence. If this happens, ask for a more humane alternative, such as diethystillbestrol (DES) or phenypropanolamine.

Only a few years have passed since there were 430 PMU ranches with around 33,000 mares and almost that many foals born each year. In 2003, sales dropped dramatically, in light of the above-mentioned 2002 study which allowed us to glimpse the true repercussions that absorbing horse urine has on women’s health. The drop in sales forced Wyeth to scale back on production and cancel contracts with many of its PMU ranchers. Those ranchers were represented by the North American Equine Ranching Information Council (NAERIC), who claim that today there are 7,000 broodmares in the PMU industry.

* For 6 months of their pregnancy, mares are kept in tiny stalls which don't allow them enough room to move around in, in order to remain healthy.
* The mares have to wear rubber urine collection bags at all times. The bags can prevent them from laying down comfortably, and cause the urine to soak the skin, which sometimes causes severe infections and painful sores.
* USDA inspectors found mares at PMU farms stiff-legged and limping due to the lack of exercise and the constant standing.
* The American Association of Equine Practitioners found that PMU mares had lower limb problems that are normally associated with strict confinement, such as hoof/wall separation and difficulty breathing.
* Mares are often denied water so that their urine becomes thick and concentrated. Wyeth pays farmers by the gallon, according to concentration. No wonder liver and kidney disease are common in PMU mares. (Note: NAERIC denies that ranchers are paid according to concentration levels, but does admit that mares are not granted access to a constant water source, in an industry that relies upon a body’s production of urine).

The NAERIC website gives us this timeline:

Foaling season: Mar thru Jun, with most in May & Jun
Mares turned out/breeding season: Jun & Jul
Foals weaned/sold: Sept. (NAERIC guidelines say that no foals can be weaned prior to Sept. 1st)
Back in barn: Oct till Mar. (NAERIC site says mares are in barn for 6 months.)
Collection season: Oct. to Mar.

September is the busiest month of the year for the PMU farmer, with weaning, selling & shipping. Foals are usually 4 months old, which is mistakenly accepted as an acceptable time to wean a foal & separate it from its dam (mother). It must be acknowledged, though, that what is physically acceptable is not always psychologically acceptable, and while many healthy foals are shipped to purchase points throughout the U.S. and in Canada, many are sickly and die during or soon after their trip.

Horses are turned out in small groups for short periods of time in an exercise pen, beginning at breakfast time. With an average of 200 producing mares on each farm, they’d have to take out at least 56 mares per day just to get them all turned out two times per week.

NAERIC wants us to believe that keeping horses inside a barn all winter is the most humane method of horse care. In fact, no actual horse owners who reside in super-cold climates keep their horses indoors all winter. Many are kept outdoors year round; some are blanketed; some are confined only at night or during winter storms. As in warmer geographical areas, much depends upon the owners facilities and abilities, and the horses do thrive and remain healthy.

Unsold foals are usually sent to auction at the end of October, when the mares are sent back to the barn to produce urine so that women can get cancer and die. Meanwhile, any foals not sold privately, through “rescues”, or selected for the “pee line” are sent to auction with slaughter in mind.

Brokering the sales of PMU foals for private ranchers proved highly profitable for any individual or organization who took part in it. Soon, greed got the better of so many of these “rescues”, NAERIC disallowed farmers to contract with anyone calling themselves a “rescue”. Consequently, only farmers no longer under contract to Wyeth are working with rescue organizations and the seemingly unending selection of PMU foals has become a thing of the past. PMU mares and foals are still available, however the majority of rescues were contracting with farmers and can no longer do that since Wyeth dissallowed ranchers to contract with rescues to sell their horses.

There is a gap in the ethics of rescuing PMU horses. “Rescuing” PMU horses used to consist of a few rescue organizations going to PMU auctions and bringing large truck loads of (mainly) foals into the United States for outright sales, called “adoptions”. Profits proved great enough to cover all expenses associated with travel and transport, as well as sizeable retirement accounts and salaries for the rescuers themselves. Once word got around about the profits to be made by “rescuing” PMU horses, many new organizations sprang up, and many previously existing rescue organizations also added a PMU “adoption” program, often with very different terms of “adoption” from their other available horses. When rescuers began approaching individual farmers to contract the sale of their herds, farmers learned that there is a lucrative market for PMU horses. They realized that with a few simple changes, such as breeding registered horses, they could increase the selling price of foals without jeopardizing the buying market, as the buyers were driven by emotion rather than sales price and actual value. Even with all the well-meaning rescuers and adopters available, nothing was being done to stop the over-breeding or make ranchers realize the damage they were doing. Some people in rescue voiced the objection that so many American horses are slaughtered each year and every time someone rescues a Canadian foal, that brings one more horse into the U.S. and prevents one U.S. horse from getting saved from slaughter. And the ranchers kept on breeding. Even after Wyeth announced cuts and began terminating contracts with ranchers, they continued to breed. Even as PMU rescues were spending years trying to help the ranchers sell off all their mares, they kept on breeding them, and they kept the mares available for sale as long as they were in foal. The first year they didn’t get pregnant and hadn’t sold yet, they were shipped to slaughter, with no repercussions from the horse rescue industry, especially not those which contracted the sale of these foals. From an economic standpoint, the sales price of a foal pays for feed and hay all winter for a mare. Even without the incentitive of breeding for the sake of medicinal urine, these farmers still found an excuse to keep on breeding horses that keep on appearing in the U.S. and keep on preventing U.S. horses from being saved from slaughter. Thus, PMU horses existed within a “catch-22”, with the only constant, both before and after Wyeth, was that we could never save them all. Only one organization spoke out against rescuing PMU horses, on the grounds that it helped clean up the industry’s image and would always be a futile effort in terms of improving the lives of and destiny of PMU horses. While USESR takes no position on whether or not PMU horses should be rescued or sold as rescue horses, the fact is that for the past 4 years, countless horses have been bred on former PMU farms which were in need of intervention to prevent them from being slaughtered, all because of the efforts of “rescuers”. The organization, Horse Aid, has been proven right in that aspect. In fact, had rescuers not approached PMU farmers with the offer of selling horses for them, and stuck to purchasing them at auctions, the incentitive to continue unnecessary breeding among former PMU mares, for years on end, would probably never have happened. If any blame is due, however, it should be considered that the “adopters” desires as consumers, that is- desiring a certain bloodline or color, is what induced the farmers to breed in a certain direction, as it significantly expanded the number of consumers of the goods that the farmers were producing, for whatever the reason. All the rancher had to say was, “auction” and emotions took control and provided the market, which was then enhanced by giving rescuing shoppers the ability to choose exactly which horses would be spared slaughter, on the basis of looks and pedigree. It also enhanced the market value of foals and that is what has given farmers the incentitive to continue breeding. The low auction price of a foal would not feed a mare through the winter.

You may be asking why the practice of going directly to farmers began in the first place. This happened because when a rescue must purchase PMU horses at auction, it must have the capital to do so up front, including shipping, health certificates, coggins tests (when appropriate), transport, and a holding facility from where the shipment of PMU foals would be picked up from, as well as feed and hay for all of them and any care they required, such as antibiotics, milk, or required vaccinations. This is where foals were documented, photographed, and profiled for “adoption” on the rescue’s website. Contracting directly with the farmers cut all of that out, as most horses never reached the rescue facility nor fell under the direct care of the rescuing organization. The cost savings was never passed down to the consumers, though; prices rose so much higher once ranchers began breeding for color/pedigree, they doubled in many cases, and sometimes went higher, depending on pedigree.

Rescuing PMU horses is always noble in that it does save that one horse from possibly being sent to auction and then possibly being sent to slaughter. However, the business of it is “buyer beware”, as you are buying a horse you have never actually seen.
One adopter purchased two Belgian mares that were said to be friendly and broke to drive. One arrived several hundred pounds underweight and turned out to have so many medical problems, she passed away 6 months after purchase. The other mare kicked at people constantly, was completely antisocial toward humans, and refused to be caught. She was placed in a free lease situation where she is retired.
Another story says that a pair of Belgian geldings, also trained to drive, were “adopted”. They were nice horses, but panicked and caused a major wreck when hitched to a wagon. They were sent to auction and sold.
Two Percherons were “adopted”. They arrived with ticks, pneumonia, and ringworm. Foals arrive with full-blown strangles, diarrhea, fever, and malnutrition. PMU mares are anti-social. You hardly ever see stallions being offered. One can only assume that their dispositions are worse than that of the mares, especially since stallions would only be offered after they are no longer able to impregnate mares at an efficient rate to ready them for the “pee lines”. On the other hand, many horses arrive healthy and share storybook endings with their new owners.

We’ve been urging people to boycott Premarin for over a decade, but none of our efforts have amounted to anything. It was only the severe health risks that caused the downsizing of the PMU industry. Before that happened, our case against Premarin consisted solely upon the fact that so many foals were slaughtered each year. Humane interests failed to garner the respect that a miracle drug earned. USESR still urges people to stop using Premarin, PremPro, PremPak, and other Premarin products, and as always, we encourage your letters of protest, however, while these letters were directed at Wyeth in past years, we ask now that people write to the FDA & their congressional representatives and ask them to remove Premarin from the market because of the adverse health effects, because not all of its ingredients are known; because significant studies have not been conducted on the new, lowered dosages of Premarin drugs and we cannot assume that lower doses equals lower risks; and because horses go to slaughter because of this dangerous drug which now has safer, more humane alternatives in the form of synthetic and plant-based substances.