Saving Helpless Animals Essay Example for Free

Saving Helpless Animals Essay Do people realize the amount of animals that are killed each year for merely just a small portion of their body? Whether it is hide, hoofs, or urine, it’s never enough to make it worth killing the animal, taking parts of the body and leaving the rest go to waste. Writers such as Peter Hammarstedt in â€Å"Defending Whales and Seals,† goes on to explain how he dedicated his career to saving these animals. Hammarstedt states, â€Å"I wanted Peter in this book because he illustrates very well how rewarding it is to follow your heart and have huge impact on those with no voice. This quote captured my heart and led me into the research of Premarin Mares. Horses are being hung from the ceiling by a harness, with a machine hooked to them to collect their urine. They are being given half the amount of water a horse should have, all so their urine will be more pure. These horses are called Premarin Mares. They get the name Premarin from â€Å"Pregnant mare’s urine† (HRT Drug Widely Prescribed, 2003). Premarin is a medicine created fro women going through menopause. These women have no clue how Premarin is being made. Once the mares have gone through the pregnancy and give birth, the foals are immediately on their way to death. They are either sent to a pre-slaughter house to gain weight, or they go straight to the slaughter house, because foal meat is a delicacy in some countries. Women need to be aware that Premarin should not be used because horses are being abused and killed for the creation of a medicine that has negative side affects upon human consumption. Premarin is a medicine that is produced from pregnant mares and is made by Wyeth-Ayerest to give to women who are going through menopause. The company that distributes and markets it world-wide, is Ayerst Organics Ltd. Premarin has been available to purchase since the year 1942. When stats were last checked in June of 2009, there were over nine million women who live in America that have purchased and been taking Premarin (HRT Drug Widely Prescribed, 2003). The drug has been around for such a long time,  people immediately assume it must work. According to its creators, Premarin helps to relieve or eliminate a variety of female hormonal problems (Benefits of Premarin, 2012). Premarin is a hormone therapy that contains a blend of estrogens available in low dose options. In general women can expect relief within a few short weeks.PREMARIN is a hormone therapy that contains a blend of estrogens available in low dose options. In general, you can expect relief to begin within a few weeks. Being a female myself, I’m sure that very line is enough to spark anyone’s curiosity. The only thing is, these women were not informed of how Premarin is made, and the doctors make the side effects sound like they are no big deal. Some of the side effects Premarin will give women are chances of having a stroke is increased by 41%. The chances of having a heart attack are also increased by 29%. Premarin increases the chance of blood clots forming by 100%, and will increase the chances of getting breast cancer (HRT Drug Widely Prescribed, 2003). These women should just find a new medicine that is not from chemicals that have to abusively be taken out of animals. The usage of Premarin is known to make hot flashes and night sweats become less frequent and intense. Premarin lets women begin to feel relief from hot flashes in as little as 3 weeks. The Benefits of Premarin states, â€Å"In a clinical trial, the lowest dose (0.3mg) of Premarin reduced the number of hot flashes from 13 to less than 3 per day at 12 weeks of therapy† (Benefits of Premarin, 2012). What people don’t realize is every year, there are at least 75,000 mares that are abused in order to produce Premarin. Since Premarin has been used, over one million innocent horses have died from its needs (Morrison, 2004). Since they have been researching how Premarin is made, there have been some changes to try to help these innocent horses. Morrison states, â€Å"The amount of horses needed went from 40,000 to 20,000 overnight† (Morrison, 2004). Premarin Mares will be used for up to twenty years if they keep getting pregnant and give out good strong urine. If not then they are simply sent away for slaughter. The harnesses that are put on the Premarin Mares make it so the horses are unable to move around at all. Being in this harness will cause serious abrasions to the horse’s body. Even this will not stop them from being put in the harness over and over (Premarin, 2012). A common breed of horses that is used to produce Premarin  is a draft horse. In the eleven months that mares are pregnant, six of that time their urine is painfully being taken from them. Morrison states, â€Å"And the result of all these pregnancies? Lots and lots of foals, baby horses† (Morrison, 2004). There are several reasons why women are so eager to use Premarin. Benefits of Premarin expresses, â€Å"Premarin has been shown to significantly improve vaginal symptoms due to menopause at every dose† (Benefits of Premarin, 2012). Wyeth Pharmaceuticals states, â€Å"Premarin’s vaginal cream is the first vaginal estrogen treatment made to relieve moderate to severe vagina itching, burning or dryness† (Wyeth, 2012). A small application of the cream can help to reduce or eliminate physical discomfort experienced by menopausal women during intercourse. With prolonged usage, the cream can reverse vaginal changes associated with menopause. It can take up to 3 weeks for the benefits to begin to be realized. What women don’t realize is that Premarin foals get taken from their mother, and either turned into Premarin Mares, or are sent away to get fattened up and then sent to the slaughter house (HRT Drug Widely Prescribed, 2003). Once foals are born, they have alm ost no hope for a good life. If the foals are not an attractive color they have no chance of being sold for normal horse uses (Premarin, 2012). Sometimes when foals are sold to good families, they have deep concern for a health problem in the foal, so they have a harder time being adopted. Foals can be bought for recreational use. Most often though, they are bought by â€Å"killer buyers.† The babies that are born are not allowed to stay with their mother any longer than four months. Every year, there are at least twenty-five thousand babies who will be killed or who die from neglect (HRT Drug Widely Prescribed, 2003). â€Å"These babies are then sent to slaughter houses or unsheltered feedlots to gain weight to be slaughtered for human consumption† (Premarin, 2012). Premarin foals get eaten by humans often. According to USDA, young foal meat tends to be very tender. This just shows how easily these babies can be neglected, because no one cares for them. Looking on the bright side of things, â€Å"Premarin has been proven to increase bone density of the hip and the spine and can help prevent osteoporosis† (Benefits of Premarin, 2012). This is an ongoing problem in women so the fact that Premarin can help solve this problem is a big plus  for the company. Mare’s used to produce Premarin are greatly abused on a daily basis and being deprived of their every day needs. Horses that are well taken care of are normally put in stalls that are around or close to 10 by 10 or even 10 by 12. These horses are being put in stalls that are eight by three-and-a-half feet. These poor horses do not have enough room to turn around. So the mare’s urine is stronger, the PMU farms give the mares half the amount of water they should receive on a daily basis (Premarin, 2012). The mares are kept on tiny stalls for one hundred fifty days hooked up to machines to collect their urine (HRT Drug Widely Prescribed, 2003). The mares are kept in very small areas so they cannot move or even lay down (Premarin, 2012). The horses used for Premarin are given no attention love wise, and for a horse it is quality not quantity that matters to it. A popular doctor, Dr. Ray Kellosalmi, even says, â€Å"The production of Premarin is a source of pure torture to these mares† (Morrison, 2004). The mares used for this are highly abused. The LCA investigation found, â€Å"a still-alive mare hanging upside down with part of her leg cut off† (HRT Drug Widely Prescribed, 2003). Premarin is a convenient drug to take. Premarin offers five different strengths of the drug therefore it can be given to all different women due to the convenient dosing options (Benefits of Premarin, 2012).Premarin farms, also called PMU farms, are where the neglect of these horses takes place, and where Premarin is made. â€Å"There are thirty PMU farms located in North Dakota near the Canadian Border† Premarin, 2012). â€Å"There are more than five hundred PMU farms in North America with the majority being located in Canada† (Premarin, 2012). â€Å"Most Canadian PMU farms have re-emerged in Manitoba, Alberta, and Saskatchewan† (Premarin, 2012). To collect the urine, they place a rubber funnel almost like a hose in between the horse’s hind legs in order to be able to get the urine. The PMU farmers who do this think it is their last hope to keep their farm going. â€Å"On October 10, 2003, Wyeth Organics (Wyeth Inc.) started its first round of cuts in their PMU production contacts by notifying PMU farmers in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that they’ll be reducing the number of ranchers who produce the urine by one-third† (Premarin, 2012). Premarin farms were never investigated for abuse until 1986; remember it started in 1942. The PMU  farmers try to breed their mares with stallions, hoping the foals will look more attractive, so they will sell easier at a sale. Killing Whales and Seals is also a pointless cause. This is why Peter dedicated his life to defending them. Just like poaching these sea lives, Premarin is a cruel way to make medicine for women going through menopause. Horses are being abused daily, and women are not aware of how it is being produced. Women going through menopause need to be aware of how Premarin is made, in hopes that they will not purchase it, so Premarin can no longer be produced.