THE TRUTH ABOUT PREMARIN
EQUINE ADVOCATES INC., a non-profit organization based in New York, worked with a film crew from the popular nationally syndicated news-magazine show, EXTRA, to expose the truth about how PMU mares are still forced to live and what still happens to most of their foals. That report, which was filmed in the Canadian province of Manitoba, was just nominated for an ARK TRUST GENESIS AWARD. It first aired on February 18, 1998. EQUINE ADVOCATES also participated in a Fox News report on the Premarin issue which aired Sunday, November 15th, 1998.
A timely film for the Premarin issue is THE HORSE WHISPERER based on the
bestselling novel of the same name by Nicholas Evans, which opens May
15. Starring Robert Redford (who also directed), Kristin Scott-Thomas
and Sam Neill, the movie was filmed in Montana, and offers a dramatic
example of people who really care about horses--even ones that some
might argue should be put down, as is the case with the unfortunate,
traumatized horse in the story--and go to extraordinary, dramatic and
effective lengths to rescue them. The movie stands in moving contrast
to the cruelty and disregard for equine wellbeing on the Premarin
collection stations across the border and the callous pharmaceutical
interests behind them. Go see it, and think again about what is
happening to the horses nobody ever ever whispers to on the inhumane PMU
farms.
V.H.
Recently I spoke with a bonafide Horse Whisperer, William "Red" Revelle of God's Acre in Madison, Virginia on the phone regarding the PMU farms, and he said 'horses were designed for movement and that tying them up in a pen was cruel.'
An interview with Red Revelle by Washington Post Staff writer, M.J. McAteer produced an intruiging, very interesting article titled "Rein Man" which appeared in the Washington Post on April 29, 1998; D01. The article is available at www.washingtonpost.com website. Everyone - including animal and horse loving people alike will thoroughly enjoy this story.
The Television Program MILLENNIUM produced by Fox Broadcasting which airs on Friday nights at 8:00 Central and 9:00 Eastern time had an episode which first aired on May 2, 1997 regarding Premarin production. This particular show, episode 119, Broken World, just repeated Sat., May 2, 1998 on Fox's X-FILES. The plot dealt with a serial killer who killed women and their horses because he was jealous of the attention and caring the horses got instead of him. At the end of the program they visited a PMU farm in one of the Dakotas and brought out the pregnant mares and how the offspring are then killed. Please write or phone Fox Broadcasting and urge them to re-air that show so that many more people are made aware of this cruelty to horses. Also suggest episode 119 - "Broken World" be made available on home video. Please write to: Fox Broadcasting, Attn: Programming, P.O. Box 900, Beverly Hills, CA 90213. Ph: (310) 369-3066.
HORMONE "REPLACEMENT" INCREASES CANCER RISK It has long been apparent that hormone "replacement" therapy increases the risk of breast cancer. A new review combines data from 51 studies in 21 countries to quantify that risk. The increased risk is about 35 percent for women who have used hormones for five years or longer. When women go off hormones, their risk gradually drops, so that after five years it is no higher than that of women who had never taken hormones.
Hormones prescribed to combat hot flashes and to reduce the risk of osteoporosis and heart disease are drug companies' biggest money-makers because women stay on them for years. These conditions are all treatable by diet, lifestyle, and, in some cases, nonprescription supplements. Reprinted from Good Medicine, Winter 1998, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.RALOXIFENE CHALLENGES ESTROGEN Many doctors prescribe estrogens to slow bone loss and reduce heart disease risk in post-menopausal women. Estrogens, however, increase the risk of breast and uterine cancer, even when progesterone derivatives are used to try to counteract the risk. This concern has caused estrogen manufacturers to mount media campaigns to draw women's attention toward heart disease risk and away from their cancer risk.
Eli Lilly has its own solution, called raloxifene, a new drug that aims to increase bone density without increasing cancer risk. Although not an estrogen, raloxifene acts on estrogen receptors. In a study of 601 postmenopausal women reported in the New England Journal of medicine on December 4, 1997, a two-year treatment with raloxifene increased bone denisty by 2 percent compared to a placebo. It also reduced cholesterol levels with no noticeable effect on uterine cells.
The most aggressively marketed estrogen, Premarin, is manufactured by Wyeth- Ayerst from horse urine. The company's supply farms have been widely criticized for their treatment of mares. All other estrogen brands are plant-derived or synthetic.
Heart disease risk can also be cut dramatically with a low-fat vegetarian diet and regular exercise. Likewise, the bones hold onto their calcium more easily when people avoid animal protein, excess salt, caffeine, and tobacco and stay physically active.
Reprinted from Good Medicine Winder 1998, Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine
TOFU VERSUS UTERINE CANCER Women whose diets are rich in tofu, soymilk, tempeh, miso, or other soy foods, are less than half as likely to develop uterine cancer compared to women who rarely eat soy products, according to a new study by Marc T. Goodman of the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, published in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Dr. Goodman examined 332 cases of uterine cancer diagnosed in Hawaii between 1985 and 1993.
The credit apparently goes to phytoestrogens, very weak plant estrogens that displace normal estrogens from binding sites on cells. Risk was increased by diets that were high in fat or low in fiber and by estrogen use.
Reprinted from Good Medicine, Winter 1998, Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine.
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Monday, March,24, 1997/ Page A7
ANIMAL LOVERS BOYCOTT DRUG FOR MENOPAUSE
Say Premarin Is Cruel To Mares
By Jennifer Harper
For the last 54 years, women of a certain age and circumstance have popped a little pill and felt better. The pill is Premarin, taken to replace flagging estrogen and the dismal symptoms of menopause. It is the most widely prescribed drug in America, with sales topping $1 billion in 1995. Not everyone likes Premarin, made by the Canadian-based Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories.
"I am no longer willing to swallow Wyeth's bitter pill," said screen legend Bridgette Bardot. Neither are actresses Mary Tyler Moore, Sally Struthers, Sandra Bernhard, Hayley Mills and Lesley Anne Down, for that matter. A diverse group of female celebrities, physicians and animal-rights activists is boycotting the drug because, they say, it is cruel to horses. The tip off is in the name. The word "Premarin" is actually a combination of the words "pregnant mare urine."
Indeed, the estrogen substitute is extracted from urine collected from mares -- some 80,000 each year, according to People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which claims that collection methods on "urine farms" are barbaric. PETA publications feature distressing photos of pregnant, scabby mares in collection apparatus, confined to stalls for their 11-month pregnancy. Their foals, PETA says, are slaughtered.
The group and the "Neigh Sayers" -- supporters who have staged protests and letter-writing campaigns around the world -- encourage women to "Throw away your Premarin." Their goal is to cost Wyeth-Ayerst $5 million in lost sales. PETA also advises women to switch to synthetic or plant-based substances. "We take their questions seriously," said Audry Ashby of Wyeth-Ayerst. The company, she said, has an equine health advisory board, an improvement program and veterinary inspectors who monitor supply ranches.
Meanwhile, other drug companies complain that Wyeth-Ayerst has a monopoly on the burgeoning hormone market. Of the 8 million American women on estrogen-replacement therapy, 80 percent take Premarin. Several drug companies offer estrogen pills, patches and creams using estrogen made from sweet potatoes and soybeans, which have the approval of PETA and doctors like Phillip Warner, Director of the Menopause Institute of Northern California. He called plant-based methods "more effective, with fewer side effects."
"This is an area where we hope our celebrities can help us," said Mary Beth Sweetland of PETA. "We hope they will hobnob in Congress to unlock Premarin's hold. It is the only estrogen replacement drug featured in the NIH Women's Health Initiative study now under way. That's unfair."
Ms. Sweetland also said Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Maryland Democrat, "betrayed her constituents by getting into bed with Wyeth. She wrote a letter to the FDA supporting Premarin."
PETA, People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals, reports sixty-three percent of physicians responding to a survey said that they were more likely to prescribe synthetic estrogens for their patients after being made aware of the strict confinement of pregnant mares for collection of their urine in the production of the Wyeth-Ayerst drug Premarin. They agreed that "the production of Premarin is inhumane and unnecessary, given that synthetic alternatives are available."
"In light of [the information on the use of pregnant mares], we have immediately stopped prescribing Premarin
and are now using Estradiol or Estrace. We have researched the efficacy of this synthetic drug and are pleased
with our findings. We are also educating our patients currently using Premarin about its ingredient PMU and
how it is made, in hopes of changing their medication to Estrace. So far, the response has been overwhelmingly
in favor of terminating Premarin use."
- Josh C. Tunca, M.D. - Schaumburg, IL
"There is no clinical difference between synthetic, or vegetable-based estrogens for use in E.R.T. Since Premarin
is made from pregnant mares' urine, it will cause pain and suffering to horses. In the past our only option was
to write for this product. Now, however, the same effect can be obtained from non-animal sources. A prescription
for Premarin is a prescription for unnecessary cruelty!"
- Edward J. Linkner, M.D. - Ann Arbor, MI
"After learning how Premarin is produced, I stopped prescribing the drug for my patients undergoing estrogen
replacement therapy (ERT) for menopause-related symptoms. In my experience, plant-derived synthetic ERT drugs are
preferable to Premarin, and they do not contain the hidden ingredient of cruelty."
Stephen Rosenman, M.D., F.A.C.O.G. - Stratford, CT