Slaughter and Premarin...

WE GO TO GREAT LENGTHS TO SAVE HORSES' LIVES BECAUSE OF THE FOLLOWING HORRIFIC REALITIES THEY FACE.

THE SLAUGHTER OF OUR AMERICAN HORSES, HEARTBREAKING BUT TRUE

In 1986 Ferdinand won the Kentucky Derby, placed second in the Preakness, and third in the Belmont. In 1987 he won the Breeder’s Cup and the prestigious Horse of the Year award. He was a true American hero and was sold for big dollars to a Japan racing syndicate. In 2002 Ferdinand, while still conscious, had his skull fractured with a four inch bolt, was hung upside down by one leg and had his throat slit with a knife all before he took his final breath in a Japanese slaughterhouse. This magnificent animal, forgotten and alone wasn’t lame or sick, he just wasn’t wanted any longer, although he had years of life still ahead of him as a useful horse. Sadly, this kind of ending is common for horses—even for famous champions.

When a performance horse is injured and cannot be useful in a breeding program, owners often squeeze a few more dollars out of their horse and sell him or her to the slaughterhouse. With the ever-increasing demand of horsemeat for human consumption in Europe and Japan, along with continued demand in the pet food and zoo industries, this kind of gruesome end for these noble creatures continues.

Last year over 100,000 horses were slaughtered in one of the three illegal American slaughterhouses and several hundred thousand were shipped live over the borders to Canada and Mexico for slaughter. According to Nick Zito, a famous Thoroughbred racehorse trainer, over forty five percent of these horses come from the racing industry. Healthy horses that will not become high stakes winners for their owners and trainers are disposed of to make room for the next batch of potential winners.

Pregnant mares who often have young foals by their side meet this terrible fate as well. They are shipped in double decker cattle trucks that are too short for horses to stand up in for as long as thirty-six hours without food, water, or rest. Mares, stallions, foals, and geldings are all packed tightly together. This means fighting and breeding en route. If any of them fall down, it is impossible for them to stand back up. They are trampled repeatedly and arrive at the slaughterhouse badly injured with many broken bones.

Once they arrive at the slaughterhouse greater distress sets in. Overcrowding, the smell of blood and the terrified screams of the horses create overwhelming panic for all of the animals. They are beaten with fiberglass rods and electric prods on their face, back, neck and legs to move from the trailers into the “kill” shutes. Once in the shutes they receive repeated blows to their head and skull with a four-inch captive bolt pistol. The terrified horses fight for their life before their legs give out from traumatic skull fractures. Once down, the workers can safely put chains on a hind leg and hoist the horse up. Then, while still conscious and in horrific pain, these horses are bled to death with a knife slit to their throat.

Inhumane, but true. It is heartbreaking that many great equine athletes end up like this. Betrayed, alone, and facing a miserable end. They try so hard to please their owners and trainers, and faithfully serve us their entire lives, but when their utility ends, many are thrown to the meat-house for a few extra dollars.

This horse was not raised to be someone's dinner(Launch Ny Times Article)

PREMARIN DRUG HORROR

Many mares of breedable age whose fate is not the slaughterhouse, have the misfortune of ending up at the Premarin DrugFarms. This is where pregnant mares are hooked up to painful machines that collect their urine to be made into estrogen replacement drugs for women called Premarin. The mares are kept in tight straight stalls with their heads tied. As many as one hundred horses are kept in the same small facility. They cannot lay down, exercise or move. Painful urine collection catheters are attached to these mares for ten of their eleven-month gestation period. The mares are not allowed to drink water at their free will…only the tiny allotted amount which is strictly monitored to keep the estrogen hormone concentration as high as possible. These mares must endure this torture for ten months until they are ready to deliver their foals. Then they have a two-week rest period before they deliver their babies on the snowy plains. The death rate of the foals (considered by-products of the industry) is about forty percent. The ones that survive have only a short time to nurse at their mother’s side, although the average foal nurses for six months. Not these youngsters, their mothers are bred immediately on their foal heat (approximately ten to twelve days after delivery). If the mare conceives, the newly pregnant mare returns to the stalls for another grueling ten months on the urine production and collection line. The foals are than sold to the slaughterhouse. When these mares can no longer conceive, they share in the fate of their foals and are sent to the slaughterhouse as well.

Although there is significant medical information proving that these equine estrogen compounds are linked to breast, cervical, uterine and ovarian cancers, Premarin is still one of the top selling drugs in the world. Why? Because it is big business and most women are uninformed because their doctors don’t educate them and the women don’t know to ask.