23. Horses face lives of unnecessary abuse. (People).The estrogen replacement therapy estrogen replacement therapy n. Abbr. ERT The administration of estrogen, especially in postmenopausal women, to relieve symptoms and conditions associated with estrogen deficiency, such as hot flashes and osteoporosis. drug Premarin comes from pregnant mare urine (PMU PMU Project Management Unit PMU Power Management Unit Pmu Pasteurella multocida PMU Pregnant Mare Urine (aka premarin) PMU Pick Me Up PMU Purdue Memorial Union (Purdue University) ). Horses have become four legged drug machines--being repeatedly impregnated im·preg·nate tr.v. im·preg·nat·ed, im·preg·nat·ing, im·preg·nates 1. To make pregnant; inseminate. 2. To fertilize (an ovum, for example). 3. and confined to narrow stalls when their urine is collected. After a life of abuse, most of the mares are forced into an overcrowded o·ver·crowd v. o·ver·crowd·ed, o·ver·crowd·ing, o·ver·crowds v.tr. To cause to be excessively crowded: a system of consolidation that only overcrowded the classrooms. double-decker cattle trailer and are shipped to slaughter-houses where they are butchered so their meat can be exported to Europe or Japan for human consumption. For all of the publicity about the PMU industry in recent years, there are still millions of people who are not aware of what it is and why it exists. Premarin is the largest selling drug in the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. and the third largest drug in the world. There are no laws regulating PMU production; in 1997, the U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a statement saying that horses used for PMU production would not be covered by the Animal Welfare Act. The PMU industry has been accused of deliberately dehydrating the horses so that the estrogen in the urine is more concentrated. In 1999, the FDA FDA abbr. Food and Drug Administration FDA, n.pr See Food and Drug Administration. FDA, n.pr the abbreviation for the Food and Drug Administration. approved a new plant based estrogen called Cenestin, produced by Duramed Pharmaceuticals, which is more chemically similar to Premarin than any other drug currently available. Today there are more than 25 non-animal-based alternatives for the use of estrogen and hormone replacement therapies Hormone Replacement Therapy Definition Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is the use of synthetic or natural female hormones to make up for the decline or lack of natural hormones produced in a woman's body. . While the PMU industry is losing ground on this continent, it appears to be gaining ground in Asia and other Third World countries. Even so, doctors are still prescribing PMU drugs without discussing the available alternatives. PMU production peaked in 1994 with more than 50,000 production stalls; today there are about 30,000. The main reasons for these decreases are the growing popularity of synthetic/plant-based alternative drugs, public awardness about PMU production, and the Food and Drug Administration's approval of a generic form of Premarin (made from PMU that had been produced in the United States). More then 10 million American women still take Premarin, Prempro or Premphase, all of which contain mare urine. The patent of Premarin, owned by Wyeth-Ayerst, is about to expire. This will cause an array of generic drug generic drug, a drug sold or prescribed under the nonproprietary name of its active ingredients or under a generally descriptive name rather than under a brand or trade name. to be manufactured and may cause the number of horses exploited and killed for this industry to increase once again. Wendy Ostroff, Kelly Hand, Adam Cimino, Haley Mueller, Students Researchers Sources.: The Animals' Agenda, (Mar/Apr. 2001), by Susan Wagner. |
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