WHAT IS PMU?
The Bitter Truth About Premarin
The drug Premarin® is used as a hormone replacement therapy aid for women. This pharmaceutical is derived from chemicals found in the urine of pregnant mares. Premarin® stands for Pregnant Mares' Urine, or PMU.
To produce Premarin, mares are impregnated, surrounded by a pulley system and normally kept in cramped stalls that measure approximately 8 feet long, by 3 1/2 feet wide, by 5 feet high. The mares are confined for seven out of eleven months of gestation. The mares give birth to their foals in pastures during late April, May, June and July. There is a stallion in each pasture, and the mares are generally re-bred on the foal heat. In September, they are herded into the barns where there is just a pipe panel between mares. A pulley system surrounds them, with a capture container feeding the urine to large vats. Pregnant mares go into the barns, foals go to the feedlots.
OVER ONE MILLION HORSES HAVE DIED TO MAKE WOMEN COMFORTABLE.
Please don't support this gruesome industry.
Within three months of a successful breeding, they are returned to the PMU production line again. Mares that do not become pregnant within a very short time cannot be returned to the collection barns. The horses go to slaughter houses, and the meat, which is considered a delicacy in Europe, is sold to Asia, China, Germany, Belgium, France, and others. Foal meat is a delicacy in Europe.
Foals removed from the mare are sometimes fattened on feedlots and then sold for slaughter. The ones not sent to feedlots go straight to the meat auctions, or are sold to resale agents. A small number are sold by foal rescue operations to mostly U.S. rescue organizations. A filly has a less than one in 10 chance of not going to slaughter, a colt foal has less than one in 50!
There are safe and natural alternatives to Premarin: synthetic, plant based, and bio-identicals. By continuing to use Premarin, these horses will seldom have a chance to live a full and happy life. Premarin has life-threatening side effects for women!
Dreamchaser PMU Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation is a facility created to save these beautiful animals from certain death and place them in homes through adoption. PMU foals and mares are unique in that they have either had absolutely no handling to minimal handling. They require special care and a gentle understanding. Paired with time and the utmost patience, the horses learn to trust humans for the first time.
Susan and Jamie Thompson at Dreamchaser PMU Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation understand the requirements necessary to care for these horses. Their gentle methods of training and treatment, along with their vast experience and knowledge help to make a smooth transition from untrained to comfortably trained. Thanks to their dedication, the horses become valuable members of equine society and perfect companions for you and your family.
Our goal for the Dreamchaser PMU Horse Rescue and Rehabilitation facility is to continue to rescue and be available to assist those who also save PMU’s from potential slaughter. These fine animals deserve a chance at an enjoyable life. We also save horses at feedlots, and from abuse, and abandonment.
For information about alternatives to Premarin, please visit The Horse Fund - Alternatives to Drugs Made with Conjugated Equine Estrogens and to see the page out of the 2014 Physicians Desk Manual on the warnings Doctors should be reading before prescribing Premarin, click here. Please also visit www.premarin.tv, a webpage belonging to Dreamchaser, or The Horse Fund - PMU Fact Sheet for more information.
This is Rush, one of the PMU mares we saved. This is the only foal she ever got to raise. She was 'ransomed' out of the Premarin farm because she was headed for slaughter.
All of her other foals were sent to slaughter when she returned to the "pee barn". Rush is now almost 30 years old, and at our Sanctuary.