ISSUES

Premarin Mares and Foals Fact Sheet

Background

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals are the producers of the Premarin family of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs for the treatment of menopausal women.

Premarin stands for Pre(gnant) Mar(e's) (Ur)in(e) and commonly referred to as PMU. These drugs are made with conjugated equine estrogens (CEE), and commonly sold under the names Premarin, Prempro and Premphase.

Mares are kept pregnant, given little water to increase the concentration of estrogens in their urine, kept standing in stalls so small they cannot lie down to rest, and milked continuously in this condition until they are ready to give birth. The only time they are free is when they are turned out into fields so they can be impregnated for another cycle.

When PMU horses are used up, they are sent to auction where all except the few who are saved by a rescue specializing in saving these horses, go to slaughter. In the meantime, nearly every foal produced are killed for their meat or shipped overseas for the same purpose.

This means that thousands upon thousands, possibly millions, of beautiful, innocent foals have been martyred for the production of these drugs.

Premarin family of drugs were proven to be carcinogenic, among other things. The inevitable rash of lawsuits followed. Wyeth have settled a large percentage of them, with sealed judgments so the public at large cannot know the extent of damages proved or the amounts paid out.

As word spread, the market began to downsize significantly, although reports say that Wyeth have drums and drums of pregnant mare's urine in storage to continue to sell the drugs through whatever unscrupulous doctors will prescribe them, knowing not only how the drugs were made, but also the many life threatening symptoms the drugs can produce.

Although some women refused to take these HRT drugs because of cruelty to horses, it was the threat to women's health that ultimately caused the sales of these CEE drugs to plummet.
 
Aprela

article that Wyeth have a new CEE manufactured drug awaiting final approval this Spring by the FDA, called Aprela.

Other groups have now picked up on this, and are sending out alerts to boycott Wyeth products, and to write to the FDA to tell them not to approve Aprela because of the cruelty to the mares, and death of the foals.

Boycotting is most likely not the answer unless it was done by a huge number of people. This has been tried before, by us and others, and was not successful.

Writing to the FDA, again, will most likely not get us the result we want, and certainly not if the reason cited is cruelty to horses. The FDA MAY listen if the potential risk to women is the primary reason, with horse abuse secondary. Again, it would take thousands of letters for this to have any chance of making an impact on the FDA's decision.

What can you do?

Right now, warn the women in your life about Premarin, Prempro and Premphase. Tell them to reject these drugs if their doctors try to prescribe them. Tell their doctors why. Some doctors will dismiss their reasons and try to persuade them to accept these drugs anyway. Tell them to stick to their guns. Doctors are given financial incentives to recommend these drugs.

There are other HRT drugs on the market that are organic, and safe and effective to take for the relief of menopausal symptoms. A quick search on the internet will give you the information you need to make a decision that is kind to horses, and to women.
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