A pregnant horse stands confined to a small stall, packed into a crowded facility with numerous others just like her. She has been through many pregnancies in her life, never having the chance to bond with her foals and she exists to serve one purpose - to make a profit. This is the life of a horse on a Pregnant Mares’ Urine Farm. The facility that exists to produce a drug called Premarin. Although Premarin is used in Hormone Replacement Therapy for menopausal women, Premarin should not be used because of the effects it has on the mares.
Life for pregnant mares at the PMU farms are horrendous and entails a constant cycle of impregnation to keep their estrogen levels high. They spend nearly six months out of their eleven month pregnancy, confined
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“Premarin is a drug made up of conjugated estrogens obtained from the urine of pregnant mares, put out in many forms (pills, creams, injections, patches, and vaginal rings) and is used to reduce the symptoms of menopause. Also prescribed to nearly eliminate the risk of osteoporosis and reduce the chance of heart disease in women over 50.” (Bro, Wyeth). Estrogen is a female sex hormone produced by the ovaries. In 1975, Wyeth became the biggest selling and most successful prescription drug. In 2003, nine million American women are still taking Premarin. Premarin is used for women post hysterectomy and have severe body issues after. The estrogen that is used in Premarin is to help stop these diagnoses. “To produce Premarin, these mares are impregnated fitting with an urine collection device and normally kept throughout their last six months of pregnancy in stalls just eight feet long, by three and a half feet wide, by five feet tall.” (Wyeth). Mares produce about ninety to a hundred gallons of urine, to collect the urine, the farmers use what is called a Urine Collection Device, also known as a UCD. The UCD is not very hygienic for the horses, it allows the urine the soak the skin of the vulva, causing severe infections and painful lesions. The UCD could even fall out of place, fill up with feces, an unhygienic condition that the farmers will not take care of immediately. Another form of torture these …show more content…
“Farmers restrict the amount of water given to the mares because the water dilutes the concentration of their urine, making it less profitable.” (Carmody). The farmers become strict when watering the mares, the most in a day they are allowed to be watered is two times. The mares were fed hay or straw, which provided nutrients, but also provided a measure of boredom relief. Mares were also fed grain or pellets. Once the mares reach their third or fourth month of pregnancy is when they are placed alone, fitted with a short rope or chain, harness, and a urine collection bag which crucially scrapes their legs, causing sores. The mares are described to be showing frustration, constantly pawing at the ground, kicking, or chewing the wooden partitions. The mares were miserable, due to their confinement and their advanced stage of pregnancy. When investigating the horses living quarters and checking on their harnesses and ropes, some horses would stand there, unbothered and quiet, while others would dance and get nervous when someone walked into their space. The odor in their barn was described to be horrendous, it was not the pleasant horsy smell everyone knows of, instead it was a sort of musky smell that permeated the air and held fast to everything it encountered. When the mares are placed in their concrete stalls, they do not get any form of protection from
The drug Premarin, a drug used to relieve symptoms of menopause in women, is made by harvesting the urine of pregnant horses. Premarin Farms, which are called PMU farms for short, are the site where this takes place. The mares are hooked up to rig that collects their urine throughout most of their pregnancy, which leaves them practically immobile. PMU farmers collect several different equine conjugated hormones found in the pregnant mares’ urine to make Premarin, which includes drugs such as Prempro, Premphase, Premelle, and Prempac. Some farms treat their horses with the upmost respect, and give them the proper vet care and food that they need, while on other farms, the horses are not quite that lucky. There have been allegations of the abuse of horses on these PMU farms for years, yet most farms haven’t been forced to change their horrible ways.
However, this approach has many challenges for which solutions have been elusive to date. Ideally, methods for contraception of wild horses should be safe and reversible, effective for several years, practical to administer and be of a reasonable cost and whilst having minimal effect on reproductive and/or harem behavior. This ensures the methods that are used to control the reproductive cycle are considered to be humane and ethical.
The use of horses for human consumption dates back to the earliest use of animals for human consumption. Horses are used for food in many counties but are also considered inhumane in other countries. In the United States specifically, horsemeat is not the norm for consumed meat. There seems to be a problem that has arisen. It is suspected that horses being slaughtered at horse slaughtering factories are not the most up to date, pain free for the horse, and human as people suspect them to be like beef kill floors.
There are many reasons why breeders may want to synchronize the estrus cycle in a mare. When using cooled or frozen semen for an artificial insemination, synchronization of the estrus cycle can greatly increase the effectiveness of the breeding(s). There is a limited amount of time in which the mare is able to get pregnant, by synchronizing her estrus cycle, her chances of ovulating during that small window of time is greatly increased. Estrus synchronization allows breeders to coordinate several different mares’ ovulations in order to prepare them for embryo or oocyte tr...
Upon further research of horse sterilizers and rape, the name that came up most often was Progesterex. A site search of Progesterex on www.webmd.com (a health service page) resulted in zero finds, with suggestions for progesterone, which is a naturally occurring hormone in women that prepares the uterus for pregnancy.
Information on abortion was available to women primarily through home medical manuals and journals. Abortion information was usually available in two sections of home medical books: how to ?release obstructed menses? and ?dangers? to avoid during pregnancy. The latter section was a sort of how-to in reverse that could be effectively put to use by the reader. The most widely consulted work, Buchan's Domestic Medicine, advised emetics and a mixture of prepared steel, powdered myrrh, and aloe to ?restore menstrual flow.? Under caus...
Watkins, E. (2012). How the pill became a lifestyle drug: the pharmaceutical industry and birth
Levinson's, F. (2011, September 20). Horse Therapy - Changing Lives . Retrieved November 5, 2013, from Way of the Horse
"Chemical Castration: The Benefits and Disadvantages Intrinsic to Injecting Male Pedophiliacs with Depo-Provera." Serendip's Exchange. Web. 23 June 2010. .
For activists concerned about the safety of PZP, in the studies done by Fitzpatrick, it was found that PZP in wild horses had no permanent or negative effects on wild horses- the same studies were done on pregnant mares. PZP had proven more positive effects on the condition of the horses, for example, there was increased body condition in the horses, as well as increased longevity. Compared between foals from treated and untreated horses, the foals of treated horses were found to develop better body conditions than their untreated counterparts.
If you’re a soon-to-be-mom for the first time, you’re likely experiencing plenty of overwhelming feelings. Women’s Healthcare Of Dothan P.C., Dothan, AL’s full-service women’s healthcare practice, says anticipating the arrival of your new little bundle of joy can surely come with stress, so picking an ObGyn to care for you throughout your pregnancy should be a priority. For peace of mind, expectant mothers should take their time to choose a provider whom they feel most comfortable with.
1) During your first pregnancy what were some ways that you went about preparing for your first child? “I took some parenting classes but I didn’t do any of those childbirth classes, the ones with the breathing techniques” Some of the other things that she remembers from this time is being very overwhelmed with being pregnant with her first child. “ I was married at a young age and this first pregnancy wasn’t expected”. She felt “like screaming” when she first found out that she was pregnant.
Sliding the barn doors open, I step into a warm, comforting environment. Musty straw mingles with the sharp aroma of pine shavings, complementing each other. A warm glow from sporadically placed incandescent lightbulbs richens the leather tack, all cleaned and hanging ready for the day's use. From it wafts the smell of a new pair of shoes. The fruity essence of "Show Sheen", applied after yesterday's baths, still lingers in the air. Even the harsh stinging scent of urine and manure is welcome at this early morning hour. Breaking open a bale of hay, I sense the sweetness of the dried timothy as it engulfs my olfactory system, making me wish my queasy stomach had not made me skip breakfast. I am nervous, as are many others. I know that the day ahead will bring excitement, dread, triumph, and defeat. The unpredictable nature of horse shows causes frenzied questions, like salmon spawning, to run constantly though my mind. Will the judge like my own particular style? What if the red flowers bordering the first jump spook my horse? What if a piece of paper on the ground blows into the ring? Will this horse show be a success? The outcome depends not just on me; but a...
Through many years, companies have tested animals to help prove that their products are safe for humans. This has become a very inhumane practice in which many animals are subjected to intolerable cruelty. Animals are treated cruelty because they are kept in cages with unhealthy conditions. Important aspects must be considered in the inhumane treatment of animals in research facilities. These aspects are focused in th...
1- Introduction : Sex education should be taught in public school is often discussed in America today. Some schools allowed their teachers to teach sex education it is where the students learned about protections ,pregnancies ,STD's.They say that sex education demolish the moral code of people because they think that sex education instruct students about how sexual interaction is done and encourage them to do it . Teaching sex education in public schools will stop sexual diseases and teenage pregnancy it gives the youth the idea of what is right and what is wrong.