Here is a local reporter who wrote a blog about her upcoming story on a PMU rescuer:

http://wtnh.tv/blogs/index.php/anchors/2006/02/15/p71

Topic: What are PMU horses? and why do we care?
What are PMU horses? and why do we care?

Posted by: Kristen Cusato; 02/15/06 09:48:21 am, Categories: From the Street,

There are thousands of horses that spend their entire lives in very small stalls, tied up, constantly pregnant, with a urine collection device attached to them. You see, the menopause drug Premarin, is made of PREgnant MARes urINe. These horses do not have nice lives...they do not get to keep their babies, the foals are a by-product of the process. The foals and the mares, when they are no longer of use (can't have any more babies), go to slaughter.

Now, I don't consider myself an animal rights activist. (I did adopt a cat a year and a half ago, and my husband and I love her very much.) However, I will not throw fake blood on people who wear fur, and I don't see myself protesting at the circus. But when I met this woman from Bethany, and found out how she rescues PMU (Premarin) horses, and gives them a second chance at life, I HAD to do a story.

Kathleen always loved horses...but now, she saves horses. She has had a farm in Bethany for almost 5 years, and hundreds of horses have come through her place. Here's how it works: Kathleen actually buys PMU horses at auction (many of the auctions are in Canada because that's where many of the Premarin farms are), she competes against slaughterhouses...and she pays for these animals by the pound. She also pays for transport, ALL WITH HER OWN MONEY! She does hold fundraisers, but it does cost a lot to get these horses back into shape.

She feeds them, waters them, lets them run and socialize with other horses, gives them an amazing amount of attention...and then, she puts pictures up in the cafe that she owns (Duck's Soup in Hamden) and on the internet...in the hopes of finding them good homes. She and her husband, and friends and volunteers have done a fantastic job getting them adopted.

But it is her passion about these animals that really hit me. She feels so strongly about the cause, works so hard to give them "a second chance at life", and she gets attached to every one of them. It is her purpose to bring these shy, abused animals out of their shells...and get them to the point where they can become riding horses, therapy horses, or just companion horses for people. She's pretty amazing. She never tires...it seems. I'd ask her a question and she'd start to answer it, and then greet a horse that approached her, or kiss a horse she was standing next to.

So, the story I am working on for 2/16 is not really about the atrocities of PMU horses. Instead the story is about one woman's passion, to make a difference any way she can, in the lives of horses....that otherwise, would be in that big corral in the sky.

Kathleen would like women to realize there are synthetic options out there to treat menopausal symptoms....and ask their doctors about other possibilities. I just hope this story will make you think.