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A big mission for a little farm
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Dear friends and fellow horse lovers,
In June 2005, we decided to become an acquisition, training, and placement service for horses no longer useful to the pregnant mare’s urine (PMU) industry. Our immediate mission was to help save the enormous number of horses at risk of slaughter in Canada! Soon we learned how wonderfully bred these animals are but that they had become unwanted and in desperate need of homes.
Our story really began when the PMU industry suddenly laid off 50 farms, primarily in Canada, placing tens of thousands of mares, foals, and stallions at risk of slaughter. My friend and fellow horse-lover/owner Vikki Dean and I traveled to Alberta, Canada, video camera in hand, to document this unbelievable situation. Thus, we embarked upon a journey that changed our lives forever.
We planned on buying horses on this trip (having picked out quite a few from photographs alone), but we soon found ourselves overwhelmed by what we saw. Vikki looked at me just as I was about to sign a check for the farmer and said she had brought her checkbook along, too. Together, we purchased 63 mares and foals that day, and my small Southern California farm soon became a sanctuary for the horses we saved. When the horses arrived, we trained them and prepared them for adoption into their new homes. Funds received from adoptions were returned to saving more horses.
In our first two years, we saved over 98 horses from a horrible fate — death at the hands of the killer buyers, who slaughter horses like cattle and sell their flesh to Europe and Asia where horsemeat is a delicacy at $35.00 a pound!
Our rescues are purebred Quarter Horses, Paints and Draft cross breeds, because most of the PMU farms were breeders of sport and performance horses before getting into the PMU business with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals (New Jersey). Keeping the mares pregnant means that thousands of quality horses are born every year. But not all of them find homes. The ones who aren’t sold in the "time allowed" (from when they are born in May or June until they are weaned in September) are often sold to killers at auctions.
Canyon Creek Farm Horse Rescue Inc., now a registered 501(C)(3) nonprofit, continues to step in to save these innocent lives. We have proven our ability to save, train, and place these amazing horses in deserving homes where they will receive love and care for the rest of their lives. We are dedicated to saving the mares, foals, and stallions displaced in the PMU industry’s yearly production cycle. We also educate the public on the plight of the PMU horse. These phenomenal horses have touched us in so many wonderful ways; we are blessed to know each and every one. In fact, in some ways, they have actually rescued us!
Our story unfolds ...
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Our first load of 17 weanlings arrive to safety in September 2005!
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So many needy horses, so little time. Every year the cycle continues!
We first got involved with PMU rescue when we learned that in early 2005 nearly 50 "equine ranching operations," PMU farms, in Alberta, and a few in Manitoba, Canada, lost their PMU contracts with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, manufacturers of the hormone replacement drug, Premarin (Pregnant Mare's Urine = PMU).
This corporate ”downsizing” placed a huge population of horses upon the already burdened horse market. Between 10,000 and 30,000 horses needed to find new homes immediately or they would be sold for slaughter. The horses at these ranches are well-bred stock - exactly what you might be looking to breed is already on the ground and in need of homes! Purebreds, registered and grade, foals, mares, stallions ... Quarter Horses, Percherons, Canadian Warmbloods, Paints, Appys, Friesians, Clydesdales, Belgians, Arabians, and Tennessee Walking Horses ... all magnificent, and all potentially without homes.
One of the ranchers I dealt with told me that the horse market in Canada is "absolutely dry", and he was at a loss about what to do next. He and his family took great pride in their animals; every horse on his farm has a name and is considered part of the family. Then and there, we made it Canyon Creek’s mission to help him and other farmers place their horses in loving homes. With the PMU closures there are just too many horses and too few buyers. Due to financial stress, many farms are selling off their stock at the cattle auctions. Animals at these auctions risk being sold to the slaughterhouse by the pound, regardless of pedigree.
We urge you to consider these PMU horses. Chances are, your future dressage prospect or cutting horse and best friend currently is located at one of the Canadian farms. And those we’re bringing down to be placed in homes are truly dream horses.
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India, Draft cross filly rescued July 2005.
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We were born to make a drug
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As our overwhelming rescue efforts went forward, we made lists of horses seen in the footage we shot in Canada. Soon, after looking at the horses over and over again, we came to know them by name as though they were already members of our own family.
They needed homes due to Wyeth’s downsizing in the aftermath of a 2002 study by the Women’s Health Initiative that linked the long-term use of Premarin to an increased risk of stroke and blood clot and linked the use of the related drug Prempro to elevated rates of heart disease and breast cancer! When the National Institute of Health advised physicians to cease prescribing the drugs, sales fell, and thousands of lawsuits were filed against the manufacturer, we thought everyone was finally aware and choosing healthier alternatives. We even believed for a brief moment that we were effectively helping to end an industry. But we were wrong.
After all our diligent efforts, imagine our dismay to read reports less than nine months later stating that sales of the horse-urine drug were up 29% and that there was discussion of needing to bring on more farms! Of course, these would be new farms closer to the PMU processing plant in Brandon, Manitoba!
With all the publicity surrounding the medical industry and Premarin, the link between the drug and its effects on the mares and foals is never brought into the mainstream public's eye. So, now that we were armed with this information, we began to gauge our future horse rescue needs by monitoring the drug’s sales on the stock market (NYSE:WYE). But by this time we were also told by Wyeth and the PMU industry regulators that we were not allowed to help save the horses bred at any current PMU farms! In a press release to the farmers, Wyeth stated that if the farmers were caught dealing with rescue or adoption groups, their contracts could be terminated. Consequently, all of our horse rescue efforts today must take place at the public auctions!
To make matters even more difficult, in late 2007 we learned of a new drug, Aprela. The FDA had given Wyeth permission to market the new Premarin-based drug meant to treat osteoporosis and menopause. According to the Pharmaceutical Business Review, “This would open up bazedoxifenes/Premarin therapy to the whole postmenopausal market while providing a continuum of care throughout the menopausal period.” Even with the recent health scare, the market for Premarin and allied PMU-based drugs is estimated to exceed $1.2 billion, the market for the new combined product, Aprela. Wyeth’s director of women’s health, Ginger Constantine, tells Bloomberg that Aprela is a “major paradigm shift in menopause therapy” because it appears to curb hot flashes and strengthen bones without raising the risk of breast or uterine cancer. Wyeth forecasts Aprela sales of $2 billion a year, offsetting a plunge in revenue from Premarin and Prempro after studies in 2002 linked the drugs to cancer and heart attacks!.
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17 more rescued horses arrive in October 2006 - bringing the total saved to 98!
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Reaching a wider audience!
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In conjunction with the PMU placement project, we are making a documentary on the PMU horse's plight. As a video producer and editor for over 20 years, I understand the media as a powerful tool to educate and evoke change. A state-of-the-art studio at the ranch enables me to work from home, where I also manage the farm and this website. If you would like to be a part of this educational project, please contact me with your ideas!
Please help us help them
Everything you can do to help spread the word is important!
Canyon Creek Farm Horse Rescue Inc. is a registered nonprofit 501(C)(3) Corporation and welcomes your kind support.
Tammy Craven, Founder
Canyon Creek Farm Horse Rescue Inc.
Southern California's PMU Acquisition, Training, and Placement Facility
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