OP Wimmin's Supplement , 3

 

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Horses
abused
in estrogen

production

 

farms

by Cathleen McGuire

Did you know that synthetic
estrogen is a known carcinogen?
Did you know that most estrogen
prescribed for menopausal women
comes from the urine of pregnant
mares? Did you know that this popu-
lar drug entails the slaughter of
thousands of baby foals?

Increasingly, women approaching
menopause are being encouraged by
the medical pharmaceutical industry
to consider hormone replacement —
therapy.

Underneath this ostensible con-
cern for women’s health is an issue

 

that poses enormous consequences for women, animals and the environment.
Ayerst, a pharmaceutical company based in Montreal, is a division of
American Home Products, a multinational corporation.
Ayerst has a virtual monopoly on the pregnant mare’s urine (PMU) industry.
Their plant, Ayerst Organics, in Brandon, Manitoba - the only one in the world - acquires

estrogen-rich urine from approximately 75,000
mares on 485 PMU “farms” in the prairie
provinces and North Dakota.

Ayerst then ships the extracted estrogen to
its main plants in Montreal and New York
where it is manufactured into Premarin, the
world’s leading hormone replacement drug.
(Premarin is short for pregnant mare’s urine.)

Through artificial insemination, the mares
are impregnated to be on the same eleven-
month gestation cycle. Percheron and Belgian
draft horses are the breeds of choice, since the
larger the animal the more plentiful the urine/
estrogen yields.

From approximately September to April,
when their estrogen production is highest,. the
pregnant mares are fitted with collection cups
and confined to narrow stalls. An Edmonton
newspaper article explains: “The horses are
kept in stalls with a kind of rubber cup attached
to their business end. The urine drains through
a network of horses to a stainless steel tank
where it’s kept chilled until pickup.”

Animal rights groups such as the Manitoba
Animal Rights Coalition (MARC), however,
claim that in reality the only exercise the
animals get is from sitting down and standing
up. The treatment of the horses is very similar
to that of intensively raised dairy cattle.

According to PMU farmer, Ricky Cartier,
“It’s paid the same, it’s handled the same as
dairies, everything is exactly the same. In fact,
the bulk room where the tank is was altered to
dairy specs two years ago.”

Anxious to avoid any hint of a horse abuse
scandal, the industry compiled a detailed
Recommended Code of Practice which farmers

must adhere to.

Groups:such as MARC continue to expose
inhumane practices, however. For example,
the average horse measures eight stalls as short
as six feet in length. MARC has also been
conferring with a former employee from one
PMU farm who claims she can document the
death of seven mares.

Death, in fact, is a given in the PMU
industry. Although some foals end up as riding
ponies for private owners, the vast majority of
the 75,000 baby horses born each year are
treated as byproducts. They are separated from
their mothers and trucked long distances to
feed lots where they are reared for eventual
slaughter as horse meat.

Ayerst refuses to assume any responsibil-
ity, claiming, “...the farmers - not Ayerst - are
responsible for sending the houses to slaugh-
ter.”

Tom Hughes of the Canadian Farm
Animal Care Trust (CANFACT) states: “Colts
and full fillies are typically sold by PMU farms
at four to five months of age, just as their
mothers are impregnated again. They may or
may not be fattened by the purchasers before
slaughter, depending on horse flesh prices.
Fillies who show proper temperament and
conformation to become PMU producers are
kept as replacements for worn out or infertile
mares, Or are used to expand production.”

With baby boomer women entering
menopause, the lucrative hormone replacement
business is positioning itself for a gold rush.
Ayerst is pouring $100 million into its Brandon
plant, augmented by a $20 million Western
Economic Diversification Fund subsidy from

Canada’s federal and provincial governments.

Hailing the expansion as a “success story”
politicians and Ayerst representatives - all men
- boast of increased employment for the area.
Many farmers are eager to be accepted by
Ayerst as PMU suppliers. Les Burwash, a
Calgary house specialist, claims, “It’s a good,
sound agricultural enterprise...”

What no one is bragging about are the
environmental problems resulting from the
manufacturing process. The stench from the
by-products is notorious. Ayerst was allowed to
expand operations on the condition that they
build a new dumping station to eliminate the
noxious animal feces and ammonia waste. The
dumping station, however, threatens to over-
load the city of Brandon’s sewage treatment
plant, posing serious problems for the water
quality of the Assiniboine River. The water-
soluble ammonia dumped is also lethal to fish
and other aquatic life.

According to
Bill Paton, of
Manitobans Against
the Assinibione
Diversion, “‘Ayerst
already has a history
of non-compliance
with the Clean
Environment
Commission and the
smell from the plant is getting worse.”

Marianne Cerilli, a member of the
Manitoba Legislative Assembly, is calling for
an immediate basin-wide federal environmental
assessment. Along with her outrage over the
dangers to the environment, Cerilli is also
alarmed about the potential health hazards
facing women who take Premarin. “We should
be asking just what the long-term effects of
Ayerst’s product will be on the environment of
women’s bodies.”

Did you know that most
estrogen prescribed for
menopausal women
comes from the urine of
pregnant mares ?

In the 1960s, estrogen was extolled as a
wonder drug. It is now known that there are
links between synthetic estrogen and
endometrial cancer, not to mention other side
effects.

In the 1980s, another drug, progesterone,
became routinely administered with estrogen to
counteract cancerous effects. (In an apparent
reversal of its former position, the medical
establishment now seems to be suggesting that
progesterone is not needed, and may even be
detrimental.)

Proponents of Premarin cite its effective-
ness for the prevention of osteoporosis “and
relief from vaginal dryness, hot flashes and
other menopausal concerns. The US Depart-
ment of Health and Human Services, however,
estimates that only fifteen percent of women
find menopause disruptive enough to seek
treatment. For those fifteen percent who want
help, fundamental questions remain: Have the
full effects of Premarin
been thoroughly investi-
gated? Can we trust
Ayerst’s data? Does
Ayerst use lab animals as
research subjects?

In response to the ethics
of using Premarin, some
doctors have indicated
that they would be
willing to prescribe cruelty-free alternatives.
Laboratory-made substitutes such as Estraderm
(Ciba Pharmaceuticals), Estrace (Mead
Johnson), and Ogen (Abbott Labs) have been
recently approved by the Food and Drug
Administration.

The downside is that these synthetics are
about twice as expensive and, once again, we
do not know the full extent of their dangers or
the degree of animal experimentation involved

in their development.
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