PMSG is a hormone of double misery. It causes suffering to pregnant mares in South American blood farms and also animals used in industrial farming for food production.
PMSG is a fertility hormone that is obtained from the blood of pregnant mares and is used in industrial animal breeding to increase the reproductive performances of farmed animals, in particular sows, through synchronising cycles and increasing the number of offspring produced per year.
Pregnant mares in South America are suffering unimaginable cruelty on so-called "blood farms." These horses are subjected to beatings, cruel handling, repeated abortions to force them back in foal, and up to 10 litres of blood drained every week for eleven weeks, twice a year. Often denied veterinary care and left to die when injured or weak, most mares live only six years - despite horses naturally living up to 30.
It is not only the mares who suffer. European industrial animal breeding relies heavily on the fertility hormone PMSG – especially in pig breeding. PMSG ensures that all sows on a farm come into heat at the same time. It forces the sows into unnatural reproductive cycles which leads to shorter recovery times, oversized litters, and weak piglets who often die.
In 2021, Irish authorities authorised the drug "Fixplan", produced by Syntex S.A., a company that operates horse blood farms in Argentina. This is the farm where AWF repeatedly documented horrible abuses during blood extraction. Because Ireland acted as the Reference Member State, its approval required other EU countries to grant "Fixplan" authorisation as well. By granting marketing authorisation for Fixplan, the Irish Government is supporting the import and use in the EU of a product that inflicts immense cruelty on the horses involved.
The Dublin Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (DSPCA) and the Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) are calling for urgent action. AWF has documented the brutal realities of blood farms in Argentina and Uruguay through repeated investigations since 2015 - finding emaciated, sick, and dead mares left without care.
👉 Please sign to demand that the Irish Minister for Agriculture withdraw Fixplan's authorisation now and end Ireland's role in this brutal trade.
Video footage of these investigations is available online
Film 2021/22: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OX4qu1zJzw
Film 2018: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc1rhfMVIO8&t=32s
Film 2016/17: www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQLRaycU1oQ
Film 2015: https://youtu.be/945zwN5-d30
