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Promoting The Humane And Responsible Treatment of Horses
The Premarin (PMU) Industry (part 2 of 5)
CYCLE OF CRUELTY
Premarin is produced at Ayerst Organics in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Brandon is known as the "PMU capital of the world." Urine extracted from the mares on about 700 PMU "farms" in Canada and the United States is shipped to the processing plant in Brandon. The company sets the quotas, sets the price, and picks the PMU producers, as farmers compete to obtain contracts with "Wyeth" to set up PMU farms. The company also runs a "research" facility in Carberry, Manitoba (near Brandon) which is operated like a working PMU farm. Security there is tight as the "work" and experiments are kept strictly confidential.
For six to seven months of their eleven-month pregnancies, an estimated 80,000 mares are confined to tiny stalls where, contrary to Wyeth-Ayerst's explicit statement, they cannot turn around, groom themselves, or lie down comfortably. They are harnessed in with urine collection pouches fitted over their urethras designed to collect the precious urine. The urine then travels through hoses that lead to plastic containers on the ground in front of each stall where PMU farmers empty them when full for collection and shipment to Ayerst Organics.
The urine pouches and the manner by which they are attached to the mares' bodies can cause infections of their vulvas and chafing of their legs, and makes it practically impossible for them to lie down. They are also tied by their necks to prevent them from turning around. These mares get little or no exercise, with some of them actually standing in that position for the entire six to seven months. Due to the nature of their confinement on the "pee lines", the mares are denied the opportunity to assume all of their natural postures. When sleeping, the mares are unable to enjoy the fully relaxed position of lateral recumbency (lying stretched out on their sides). Instead, they must sleep standing up or lying down in the more cramped position of sternal recumbency (lying on their chest with legs tucked up). There is no official government regulation for the treatment of PMU mares, only a "Code of Practice" written by Wyeth-Ayerst for the PMU farmers to follow.
The mares are commonly fed and watered on a time-release basis. They are deliberately deprived of water so that the estrogen is as concentrated as possible. Mares are given minimal amounts of water 17 or 18 times a day. They can be seen trying to drink out of empty water bowls and are in such anticipation of each allotment that they continue to try to drink long after the water is gone. They also exhibit stressful and anxious behavior when they know the water is coming. Liver and kidney disease are common in these mares, as is swelling of the legs.
Harnessed in with pouches fitted to collect their urine
IT'S A HORRIBLE LIFE
In general, most horses live well into their twenties and thirties, but not PMU mares. The ones who are considered to be "good producers" can stand on the "pee lines" for as long as twelve to fourteen years before being scrapped at the slaughter auctions for meat. The same fate is a common occurrence for most of the mares who don't become impregnated. In the spring, when they give birth and their estrogen levels are down, the mares are allowed out in the fields again...but not for long. They are soon impregnated again and placed back on the "pee lines."
The stalls -- from behind
The stalls -- from the front
Life for the mares on the PMU farms is so hard that one-fourth of them are replaced each year, even though typical life expectancy for the draft breeds used on most of these farms is twenty years or more.
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