Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin (PMSG) is extracted from pregnant horses in Iceland during the summer at “blood farms”, before being converted into powder and shipped around the world.
Confined Icelandic Horses...
Iceland is under pressure to ban the production of a hormone
extracted from pregnant horses, a practice that has been described
as “cruel” and “animal abuse”.
The hormone is used by farmers across the UK and Europe to increase
reproduction in pigs, cows and other female farm animals.
Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin (PMSG) is extracted from pregnant
horses in Iceland during the summer at “blood farms”, before being
converted into powder and shipped around the world.
Animal welfare campaigners in Iceland visiting farms with the
Guardian showed broken restraint boxes and enclosures covered in
bite marks, which they claimed was a sign of anxious horses.
Undercover footage from farms, taken by animal welfare campaigners,
also appeared to show distressed horses being hit and struggling in
restraint boxes before blood was drawn using a large cannula
inserted in their jugular vein.
A mare is held in a restraint box while blood is extracted using a
cannula inserted in the animal’s jugular vein. Photograph: Animal
Welfare Foundation.
The European Commission said it was “seriously concerned” about the
treatment of horses farmed for blood, while the European parliament
has called for imports of the hormone to be banned.
“I would like people to know that Iceland is actually stabbing
semi-wild pregnant mares, taking their blood in extreme volumes and
frequency, just to … make pigs have more pigs,” said Rósa Líf
Darradóttir, a medical doctor and horse owner in Reykjavik.
In late March, an international coalition of 17 NGOs submitted a
complaint against Iceland to the European Free Trade Association
(EFTA) Surveillance Authority (ESA), which monitors compliance with
European Economic Area (EEA) rules in Iceland, Liechtenstein and
Norway.
The complaint accused Iceland of breaching EEA law on the protection
of animals used for scientific purposes and said Icelandic
authorities should ban blood collection.
Experts have also expressed concern about the amount of blood taken
from horses. The pharmaceutical company Isteka, which owns or
subcontracts farms, said five litres* of blood are taken from
pregnant mares every week for eight consecutive weeks – around four
times the amount specified on international guidelines.
The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (Mast), which granted
Isteka a licence, said: “There is no indication that blood
collection of five litres a week for up to eight weeks has a
negative impact on the health and welfare of the mares or their
foals.”
Ingunn Reynisdóttir, a veterinarian who lives in north Iceland and
has worked with horses all her life, disagreed. “It’s too much
[blood] and if you take too much they are trembling and have
difficulty walking,” she said.