Premarin H&P Letter

Premarin

Health Feature Article - Premarin

A Letter from 'Horse & Pony' Magazine

Virtually Horses has written to local magazine "Horse & Pony" regarding the Premarin issue, pointing out that one of its advertisers Fort Dodge was a direct subsidiary of AMH\ Fort Dodge US and surely therefore this should be a conflict of interest for a magazine concerned with the health and welfare of horses and ponies.

The reply is shown in its entireity below - apparently Horse & Pony Magazine's stance is as follows:

The racing industry discards horses too Horse & Pony sees no difference between killing horses for meat and killing cattle or sheep for meat. Since there are other issues of 'greater importance' (like live transportation conditions Eastern Europe) that we shouldn't concern ourselves with PMU farming conditions. That people are suffering worse conditions and we should be more concerned with them.

These are very interesting views for the major Horse sport magazine in New Zealand.

Virtually Horses doesn't agree.

This is the old two wrongs make a right argument. I don't agree with the throw away attitude of the racing industry - see ethics in horse racing and I don't see what that has to do with this issue.

Polls show that women taking Premarin would swap to another product if only they knew where it came from. Yet I have not seen a single article about this (or the live horse transport problem mentioned in the letter) nor many other welfare issues in H&P.

These horses are NOT being bred for food but discarded as a byproduct of the pharmaceutical industry, so the 'its not bad to eat horses' argument really doesn't wash.

Moreover, this drug is not an essential product like food, there are alternatives and there is something each and every one of us can do, in the magazines case - refusing to advertise products from Fort Dodge.

Indeed there are many people suffering in the world - however, I'm pretty sure the 'Horse & Pony' magazine NZ is a magazine about horses...

If you don't agree either email Joan Gilchrist and let her know

*Note Joan Gilchrist is no longer editor of Horse & Pony Magazine.

This is the reply received from Joan Gilchrist:

From: "Horse & Pony" <editor@HORSE-PONY.CO.NZ>

Sent: June 6, 2001 4:15:14 AM GMT

Subject: Re: Premarin - Advertiser Fort Dodge

Thank you for your letter. We will not be severing our relationship with Fort Dodge. We are aware of the PMU Farming issue and last year made enquiries - as exhaustive as we could from this distance - from colleagues in North America and from horse welfare agencies, about the farms and the conditions in which the mares are kept and how the foals are disposed of.

While the concept of mare farming for urine is perhaps less than ideal, the information we received left us reasonably comfortable with the conditions in which the mares are kept and what happens to the foals. Certainly, in earlier times the situation was not at all satisfactory but it seems that over the past 5-8 years, vast improvements have been made in the way the mares are kept and the bulk of the foals - often by good sport horse competition stallions - are sold, the farmers having recognised that there is a market for quality youngsters. Further Wyeth-Ayerst have instituted a number of measures to ensure humane conditions...though I guess that as in any aspect of the horse/animal world, there will always be ratbags who cut corners to the detriment of the horses.

Poor breeders being put down in that industry is no different to the racing or sport horse breeding industry which doesn't suffer mares that don't breed with any great patience...and, were it happening, is there really any great difference between farming cattle and sheep for human consumption and farming horses for human consumption? I'd be far more concerned about the conditions of travel in the live horse trade from Eastern Europe into Continental Europe than about the PMU situation, and vastly more concerned about the deplorable conditions in which so many human beings live.

May I suggest that you contact the ILPH here, who hold a series of reports over a number of years, prepared by expert observers, which may help to alleviate your concern to some extent. I'm sure they would be happy to copy them to you.

We thank you for your interest. If any other information comes to hand, I shall advise you.

Joan Gilchrist

Editor

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