AR-News: Whole Foods/Premarin online now on Go Vegan Texas!

[Mary Finelli]

Listen Live on http://www.govegantexas.org or http://www.kpft.org


"Whole Foods does not respond to coercion. We re-examined (animal rights 
activists') claims and decided they were basically right."
                                                         --- John Mackey, 
CEO, Whole Foods Market
                                                               in USA Today, 
October 23, 2003


"Wyett Ayerst Labs announced a 50% production cut back on the drug Premarin 
this morning. A stunning announcement that will save 20,000 mares from 
having to (spend most of their lives) in tight stalls while their urine is 
collected to make the world's most widely prescribed drug and ... another 
20,00 foals that would face immediate slaughter."
                                                        --- Last Chance for 
Animals Press Release
                                                             October 14, 
2003

CORPORATE GIANTS: Whole Foods and Wyett labs
Pay Heed to Animal Rights Charges of Animal Cruelty
Today on Go Vegan Texas! at 11am (CST) on KPFT-Houston

Whole Foods Market, as a result of negotiations with animal rights group, 
Viva! USA, pledged to totally transform the way animals are raised for its 
stores.

This morning on Go Vegan Texas! hear Viva! USA director Lauren Ornelas  
discuss her group's recent negotiations with John Mackey, Whole Foods Market 
CEO, that led not only to ambitious plans by Whole Foods  to design more  
humane husbandry standards for farmed animals sold in the natural foods 
retailer's more than 145  stores (with annual sales of $3.2 billion) but to 
Mackey making his own personal commitment to end animal cruelty.  "My 
research on animal welfare issues while in dialogue with Ms. Ornelas, 
convinced me to personally become a vegan.  I believe a vegan lifestyle is 
the most animal compassionate lifestyle possible."

According to Mackey, ducks will be among the first animals benefiting from 
rigorous new policies on humane treatment. This prompted Viva! to declare a 
moratorium on its two-year-old campaign to convince Whole Foods Market to 
stop doing business with farms that abuse ducks such as Grimaud Farms in 
California.

Ornelas stated, "My conversations with Mr. Mackey convinced me that he is 
sincerely interested in improving conditions for farmed animals. The 
suffering endured by ducks and other farmed animals sold at grocery stores 
in the U.S. is heartbreaking, and we hope that Mr. Mackey and his company 
will be able to push the farming industry to make dramatic improvements."

Wyett Labs, made the stunning announcement recently to cancel one-third of 
all its contracts with ranchers in Canada whose horses provide the 
pharmaceutical giant with
Pregnant Mare's Urine, hence the name Premain, the world's most widely 
prescribed drug.
The other two-thirds of producers will be forced to reduce their herds by 35 
percent. This will result in 50 percent fewer PMU mares in production.

We will discuss what this cutback means for both the tortured horses who 
spent most of their lives restrained in small stalls to collect their urine 
and for menopausal women who face great health risks from taking this drug 
... this morning with our guests, Dr. Ray Kellosalmi,  a family practioner, 
and his sister, Sinikka Crosland, a registered nurse, both living in British 
Columbia.  Both animal rights activists, Dr. Kellosalmi has spent the past 
decade buying horses at auction from the Premarin farms in the provinces of 
Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Sinikka is the founder of TRACS, The 
Responsible Animal Care Society, and has an animal sanctuary.

A year ago, Dr. Kellosalmi drove a caravan of rescued Premarin foals to the 
United States and placed them in sanctuaries. He is known around the world 
as the "Horse Rescurer" because he purchases mares and foals at auction in 
Canada where most of the Premarin farms are located, saves as many as 
possible from the slaughter house buyers, and keeps them in his horse 
sanctuary until he finds suitable homes for them.

With the decreased demand for Premarin, once the disturbing health 
consequences to women were announced last year in a NIH study, there is a 
great need to find homes for the thousands of horses that will no longer be 
needed for the production of Premarin.

Last week HSUS, the Humane Society of the US,  called upon Wyeth  to 
establish a fund to provide sanctuary  for the reportedly 20,000 or more 
pregnant mares housed on farms in Western Canada and in North Dakota whose 
services are no longer needed because of decreased demand for Premarin 
derived from the urine of pregnant horses.


All this...this morning to Go Vegan Texas! now in the weekly 11am time slot 
on KPFT-Houston.

Thank you,
Janice Blue
Host, Go Vegan Texas!
Mondays at 11am (CST)
on Pacifica Radio, KPFT-Houston
Listen Live on www.govegantexas.org or
Later on www.kpftarchive.org

Every animal you eat
Was running for her life
--------------------------
Show Compassion, Go Vegan!


CONTACT FOR TODAY'S GUESTS:


Lauren Ornelas:
www.vivausa.org  and info at vivausa.org

Sinikka Crosland and Dr. Ray Kellosalmi
tracs at shaw.ca

For Fund for Horses and Horseshoes 4 Congress Campaign:
www.fund4horses.org


The cut back was a major victory for animal rights and for the 36% of the 
current US population who are women aged *45+, who are entering into or are 
in menopause and indeed a tribute to the 1,000,000 horses have perished in 
the 60-year history of Premarin production.

³We commend Wyeth for taking this brave step,² said Chris DeRose.  ³We hope 
that the public continues to pressure Wyeth about the dangers of this drug 
and the disturbing manner in which the active ingredient is harvested from 
pregnant mares urine.

In order to collect the urine, 35,000 to 40,000 mares are kept pregnant year 
after year, tied in stalls for six months at a time, connected to 
urine-collecting devices. During this time they can take a step forward or 
backward, or side to side, but they cannot turn around, scratch an itch on 
their rump, or roll in the dirt. Unable to lie flat out, they cannot enter 
into a deep sleep. Such cramped confinement often leads to stress, disease 
and lameness. This unnatural existence goes on all winter as the immobilized 
mares become heavy with foal.

The foals born to the mares in spring are sent to auction in early fall. The 
vast majority of them are loaded into cattle carriers for the trip to meat 
packers' feed lots. Some are purchased by equine rescue groups or by 
performance horse buyers and a few might stay back at the farm to replenish 
the stock. But the majority, before they reach their first birthday, end up 
as dinner on the plates of the Japanese, Belgians, French, Italians, 
Germans, Dutch and Swiss, a protein source considered all the more valuable 
in light of recent cullings of European livestock due to the spread of Mad 
Cow and foot-and-mouth disease.

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