New Hope PMU Equine Rescue   

Women’s hormone replacement therapy drugs, Premarin and Prempro, among others, she said, are manufactured from estrogen extracted from the urine of pregnant mares. The term PMU stands for pregnant mare urine. The byproduct is the resultant foal.

A large number of the foals will be sent to auction soon, where, Gross said, “Killer buyers will be waiting to buy them by the truckload at a per-pound price. These 4-to-5-month-old babies will be taken to feedlots, where they will be fattened to 700 pounds, then sent to slaughter, ultimately ending up on dinner plates overseas.”

The ranchers, she said, are under contract with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals for the urine, and an attempt is made by the ranchers to sell the PMU foals to the public.

“Very few of them have much success in marketing the foals,” she said, “as evidenced by a growing list of auctions.” The list is available at www.newhopepmuequinerescue.org.

Upon the breeding of a mare, the unfortunate animal is connected to a urine-collecting apparatus for a period of six to eight months, Gross said. Just before delivery time in the spring, she is finally given the freedom to leave the barn and enter the pasture to deliver her foal.

As soon as the foal is born, the mare is rebred. She remains in the pasture with her foal only until it is weaned, about four to five months, and is reconnected to the urine-collection apparatus.

Although Premarin and Prempro have been found to be harmful to women, Gross said, there still are women who use the drugs, and there are many farmers with urine-producing mares—numbering approximately 6,000—and the farmers remain under contract with Wyeth.

Gross added that about 100,000 horses of every type, color and breed are slaughtered each year, PMU and non-PMU alike. She said that in transportation to feedlots and to the slaughterhouses, the horses, with their unique temperament, are treated in inhumane ways, often traveling long distances with no water, feed or rest. And that’s only the beginning of their ordeal.

Gross is a member of New Hope PMU Equine Rescue, an all-volunteer organization dedicated to rescuing the foals.

 “To that end,” she said, “we will go to at least one auction this fall and bring home as many PMU foals as we can find homes for. The farmers sell during the summer using various venues, and those foals that remain unsold are sent to auction.”

Through the 2007 Bring the Foals Home Campaign, Gross asks for the help of the public in adopting or fostering a foal, or in making tax-deductible donations to NHER, which is a nonprofit 501©3 charitable organization. In recent years, many farmers have adopted more responsible breeding programs. Therefore, they are producing higher quality foals.