23/04/2021

The president: “We want to get Minister Speranza to listen to us and block the authorisation to distribute the drug”

The petition launched on the Change.org platform by IHP (Italian Horse Protection), the first Italian association for the protection of horses based in Volterra, has collected over 25000 signatures: thousands of citizens are asking the Italian Minister of Health, Roberto Speranza, not to grant authorisation for the marketing of Fixplan, a drug produced by the Argentine company Syntex by torturing pregnant mares and used in intensive farming for the production of meat. 

IHP's campaign to block the green light for Fixplan has also received the support of three Parliamentary Questions presented, among others, by Hon. Michela Vittoria Brambilla (Forza Italia), Hon. Patrizia Prestipino (PD) and Hon. Manfredi Potente (Lega Nord).

“The Minister must listen to us, to the more than 25000 citizens who are asking for this massacre to be stopped” says the President of IHP Sonny Richichi. “Syntex, the Argentine company that produces Fixplan, has asked Italy for authorisation to distribute the drug in our country with the help of a German company acting as an applicant: Minister Roberto Speranza has the authority to say no”.

Fixplan is a drug produced using the blood of pregnant mares (within 120 days of conception) from which the active principle Equine Serum Gonadotropin (PMSG) is extracted. Various investigations conducted since 2015 by the Animal Welfare Foundation, have documented the suffering inflicted on mares from which as many as 10 litres of blood are taken per week. If they become weak or sick they receive no treatment. Videos shot undercover confirm constant abuse: they are also beaten with sticks and hit with iron hooks. Added to this is the agony of the foals because the mares are made to abort (their gestation normally lasts about 330 days): the foals die suffering.

(photo: © Animal Welfare Foundation)

PETITION: No to Fixplan: stop horse abuse

VIDEO: the Syntex blood farms

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