Drug Company Merger Shields Over a Million Horse Deaths

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer recently acquired another major drug manufacturer, Wyeth, for 68 billion dollars. It is the most expensive drug industry merger of the year so far.

Missing from the upbeat reports about the lucrative merger is the cost in horse lives as a result of Wyeth's production of the hormone replacement therapy (HRT) drug Premarin. Most estimates put the horse death toll linked to Premarin at well over one million.

(Horse: Karpati)

The active ingredients for Premarin—used by around nine million women to relieve menopause symptoms—come from the urine of pregnant horses. The mares are confined to narrow stalls for 20 hours at a time while hooked to collection devices, MSNBC reports. The foals of these mares usually go to auction, where they are often snapped up by bidders known as "horse killers," who send the horses to feedlots. There the animals are fattened before slaughter, according to the report.  

Since so much money is at stake, it's a hard cycle to stop, but staff at Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue in California are trying to save as many of the HRT horses as they can.

I just learned about Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue this week after connecting with musician Woody Simmons. In an unrelated project, Simmons is working with Discovery filmmaker Ed George on a film that will feature, among other luminaries, Jane Goodall.

Tonight, however, Simmons is performing in a benefit with singer Kitty Rose to raise money for the private California horse rescue group. She told me that Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue "buys horses from auction that would otherwise be slaughtered."

"They have saved many mustangs, and others, and have property where horses that cannot be adopted can live out their lives," Simmons added. "They have a small operation, but provide at least one alternative to a few horses. They also provide another route for educating and informing the public of the plight of horses. 95,000 horses are sent out of our country every year to be slaughtered for meat, dogfood, etc. They are sent to Mexico and Canada."

In a related project, one of Simmons' songs, "Who'll Save the Animals," is out on a new CD. All of the proceeds will go to benefit PETA. She said it was put together by Mel Watson and is titled Compassionism on Monkey Records.

Simmons' collaborator on the horse rescue benefit tonight, Katharine "Kitty Rose" Cole, takes horse rescue to heart.

(Kitty Rose with her rescued horse Anicca. Credit: Katharine "Kitty Rose" Cole)

"I have my own mini-sanctuary in Hopland, California, where I have five horses who would not have a home otherwise," Cole told me.

She said she can care for her horses by herself, but it is quite another matter when handling the 80 plus horses that Lifesavers Wild Horse Rescue currently has. In addition to taking in HRT horses, this group also rescues "nuisance" wild horses, horses that owners cannot properly manage, and other horses that would otherwise be slaughtered or abandoned.

"The Wild Horse Rescue is an amazing example of what one person can do to help horses in need," Cole said, adding that "these folks were brave enough to take personal action to protect these horses and put themselves on the line in their stead. Now they have created a beautiful sanctuary which folks can visit and learn and care for these national treasures and hopefully become a part of the surge of interest to protect them from being destroyed."