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Menopause and Mare Urine Urine with Your Morning Coffee Menopause Is Cruel to Mares Back to Top For many human females, menopause can be quite a trial. Dripping wet from brow to toe, restless and unable to sleep, prone to irritable mood swings—the aging process can be pretty difficult. It is even worse for female horses. Though they may not go through menopause, they suffer nonetheless. Pregnant mare urine (PMU) is one of the ingredients in a vast majority of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drugs, such as Premarin® and PremPro®. Such drugs were popular in both the Today, pregnant mare urine is still being collected and used in the manufacture of drugs purportedly designed to help prevent osteoporosis. Say “No” to Pee Cups Back to Top PMU farming began in the early 1940s thanks to chemists who found hormones in pregnant mare urine could be used to create HRT drugs. To collect urine, mares are forced to stand with rubber collection tubes affixed between their legs. They are tethered into their stalls, typically as small as 3½’ wide and 8’ long in a way that does not allow them to move around or lie down, spending six of their eleven months of pregnancy so confined all the while growing larger as their foals develop. They are hooked up to “pee” lines (pouches attached over the urethra to catch the mare’s urine). The constant standing with an ever enlarging body causes problems with their hooves, legs, and back. They get little if any veterinary care. Mares are eventually turned out to pasture to give birth. They are allowed to nurse their foals for a few short months. Then, they are impregnated and the cycle starts all over again. Once they are no longer able to carry a foal to term, they are sent to auction and most likely on to slaughter. PMU farms, found mostly in western Urine with Your Morning Coffee Back to Top While the mares are given adequate food, their water intake is monitored. The less water they drink, the more concentrated their urine becomes. The purpose is to collect the highest concentration of estrogen possible from each mare, making each collection bucket more profitable for the PMU farmer. Giving mares too much drinking water dilutes their urine, producing less estrogen, therefore less profit. Female foals are often kept on PMU farms to replace their mothers when they are spent. Male foals, of course, are useless to the trade and may be sold at auction from where they may be sent to slaughterhouses. Female foals who cannot be used go to auction/slaughter as well. All of this is done to produce a medication that is supposed to take care of human female discomfort during a normal change of life process. Menopause is not a disease, but a living process. For the mares, being hooked up to pee lines is an unnatural process that ends in early death. A horse’s normal lifespan is between 20-30 years; a PMU horse’s lifespan is eight to ten years at which time she is no longer considered good stock. And her male foals’ lifespan is possibly only months. If you are not sure you are taking pregnant mare urine, just break a pill open. You will know by the smell. Causing suffering and death to mares and their foals to ingest the urine of a living, breathing, sentient being cannot be a good reason for seeking comfort during menopause. Take Action to Help End the Misery of PMU Horses What can you do to change what is happening to female horses? First, if you are currently taking HRT or osteoporosis drugs, determine if the drug you are taking is made with pregnant mare urine. If it is, ask your physician for alternative drugs that are plant-based rather than animal-based. Other humane actions include:
December 2009 Back to Top |