With few rdoctors prescribing Premarin or Prempro, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, has shut down most of its horse ranches where 17,500 mares and their foals that are no longer needed for the production of the hormone used in the drug. The veil has been lifted on how Wyeth made the drugs.
In the past a ranch would be set up and pregnant mares' urine, or PMU, would be kept continually pregnant and tethered to a collection cup so that her estrogen-rich urine could be used to make the drug prescribed to treat menopause symptoms.
The mare's foals — bred in the field with little medical attention — are often sold by the pound and slaughtered for their meat.
For more go here. You can learn how to adopt a horse being discarded, go here and here.
