11/10/2022
14 organisations from 14 different countries condemn the inertia of the European Commission in the face of evidence gathered over seven years of investigations into cruelty to animals.
IHP President, Sonny Richichi: “We are looking at a double torture: animals who suffer excruciatingly painful blood extractions, for the production of a drug to be used on animals who suffer equally in other ways. We are appalled by the utter lack of action by those who should be intervening”.
PMSG (pregnant mare serum gonadotropin) is a hormone extracted from the blood of mares who are 4 months pregnant. It serves to make a drug used in intensive farming, particularly of pigs, to synchronise and accelerate the fertility cycle in the breeding females. In practice, this means that if the females are all made to come into season at the same time, and can be artificially inseminated at the same time, and therefore give birth at the same time, it makes production of piglets, the fattening of piglets, and their slaughter, all the more “efficient”.
As if this was not enough, if the period between pregnancies is shortened, there is even greater efficiency because there are more piglets produced.
This seriously unnatural process has dire consequences not just for the pigs but also for the pregnant mares whose blood provides the hormone.
The unspeakable conditions in the so-called ‘blood factories’ in South America have been exposed and denounced by AWF (Animal Welfare Foundation) and TSB (Tierschutzbund Zürich) since 2015, and these organisations have been joined by others from various countries, forming an international network which has been lobbying the European Commission, individual States and pharmaceutical companies.
One main objective has been achieved – four out of five European pharmaceutical companies have stopped the importation of PMSG from South America.
In October 2021, the European Parliament asked the European Commission to pass a Resolution stopping the importation of PMSG altogether in the EU – a highly important Resolution which however until now languishes in the inertia of the EC.
Fresh investigations in 2021 and 2022 in Uruguay and Argentina reveal yet again the extent of the cruelty of the production of PMSG: mares beaten with sticks and fists, terrorised, shut in tiny stables, injuries along their necks caused by inexpert, untrained personnel inserting needles and cannulas, subjected to blood being extracted in abnormal quantities (up to 10lt of blood a week for 12 weeks, twice yearly), often made to abort (after the fourth month of pregnancy their blood is no longer useful), starved, denied any veterinary assistance when injured or sick or in difficulty, and just left to die.
Since 2019 the Argentinian firm Syntex has been trying to get back into the European market, via local distribution partners, changing the name of the product from Noromon to Fixplan and setting up a new group in Ireland called Syn Vet-Pharma Ireland Limited.
Authorisation procedures for Fixplan are underway in several member states of the EU, including Italy, where IHP is waging a battle to stop the Ministry of Health permitting the drug onto the market.
14 animal protection organisations from Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, Poland, Ireland, The Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Uruguay, Argentina, Canada and the USA, together with Eurogroup for Animals, request that the European Commission intervene urgently to prohibit both the import and the production of PMSG.
VIDEO - PMSG documentary
The PMSG campaign (AWF website)
MORE VIDEOS:
VIDEO: blood farms in Iceland
VIDEO: the Syntex blood farm in Argentina
VIDEO: blood farms in South America
PETITIONS:
NEW PETITION WITH CARE2: end PMSG import, production, and use in the European Union
PETITION: stop blood farms in Iceland
PETITION to the Italian Ministry of Health: No to Fixplan in Italy
PETITION to the EU Parliament: stop blood farms
ALL ARTICLES ON BLOOD FARMS:
Blood farms in Iceland: new regulations, but we want a definitive stop. Sign the petition
IHP writes to the Italian Government: stop importation of PMSG immediately (May 2022)
The Guardian article 16 May 2022
Blood farms: associations do not give up (May 2022)
Blood farms: ONG write to the European Commissioner (December 2021)
European Parliament calls for ban the production and import of PMSG (November 2021)
Iceland investigation: drugs produced by torturing pregnant mares (November 2021)
European Parliament moves on horse meat imports and blood farms (September 2021)
4 MEPs ask the minister not to authorise Fixplan, which comes from torturing horses (June 2021)
More than 25000 signatures against the drug produced by torturing horses (April 2021)
Fixplan - the case of the drug produced by the torture of pregnant mares lands in Italian Parliament (April 2021)
IHP to the ministry of Health: block the authorization of the drug produced by the torture of mares (March 2021)
Justice investigates the extraction of blood from pregnant mares (March 2021)
The blood farms: a macabre business revealed by an investigation (February 2017)
IHP is an independent association dedicated to the welfare of all equids. We combat abuse and ill-treatment and strive for a legislative and cultural change that can lead to the recognition of the rights of horses. We also run the first rescue centre in Italy for equines seized for mistreatment. We do not receive any public funding, nor are we reimbursed by the Public Prosecution Offices for the custody of the horses handed over to us. We can only count on donations and fundraising initiatives. You too can participate in our activities or support us with a donation of any amount.