What is PMU?
PMU stands for Pregnant Mare Urine. The hormone in the urine is used to make hormone replacement therapy drugs for pre-menopausal and menopausal women. Obviously, the only way to get PMU is to have a pregnant mare - that's where the foals come from. The mares are then bred back immediately (they can be rebred 7-9 days after birth). The farmers have no use for the foals, so they are gotten rid of. Apparently, they used to just kill the foals as soon as they were born - that way the mares never had to leave the urine line-up. There was much concern for the welfare of the mares, so the government demanded they have a break from the line-up. The mares are turned out to pasture with their foals for about 4 months - at this point, the hormone in their urine is at its highest concentration, so they are returned to the line - and the foals are sent to slaughter, auction, adopters, rescue groups and sometimes the fillies are kept as future urine producers.

If they're just going to slaughter, why is the price so high?
The PMU farmer sells the foals to the slaughter house - he will get a certain per pound (or kilogram) price. For him to have incentive to sell to us (which is more work for him), he charges us more money than the meat truck will give him.

Then we add in the cost for having the vet check them and do bloodwork for the Coggin's test (this is required for import), then the cost for paperwork to go through the Canadian government, then going through the USDA border check point and all that paperwork, and finally the cost of shipping from Canada to select locations - this is the most expensive part of it.

What is involved in importing these foals?
The foals will be inspected by a veterinarian, and have blood taken for the Coggin's test (test for Equine Infectious Anemia). All of this information will then be sent to the Canadian government for export approval. The "dossier" will then be sealed by the Agricultural Dept. of Canada. Once these dossiers come back, the foals will be allowed to leave the country - but they must do so within 30 days of the initial vet check.

They will be trucked down through the border inspection - where a customs broker will handle the paperwork and the USDA veterinarian will look over the foals and give his/her stamp of approval.

Finally, the foals will be in the US and on their way to their new homes!

What happens to those who aren't adopted?
Well, we try not to think about that... but they will be sent to slaughter.

Will you do this again?
For 2004, we will probably just be a referral service. Victoria has been extremely busy with her "day job(s)" and doesn't feel that she can devote the time and attention needed for rescue. But, she would like to still be involved with rescuing horses.

Why don't you have information about some of the sires?
Well, this particular PMU farmer never had any intention of selling these foals to outside parties, so we can only get the information that he is willing to give us. We know about Topit - because he belongs to Abe (see above for "who is Abe?"), and we know about the Paint/Percheron because he was used on the mares who are on the parcel next to Abe.

None of the stallions belong to the PMU farmer - so it makes it difficult to find out about those who have not been seen by us.

I have a rig, and I would like to pick my own foals up from Canada, can I do that?
We can certainly work something out - please let us know if this is your case. You will need to arrange for your own customs broker and USDA fees (we can help guide you) - but all other paperwork and vet checks (i.e. the dossier) will have been completed for you.

Are you a Non-Profit organization?
Not as of yet, we are currently in the process of filing applications to become a non-profit.

We've been in the press!
Here are some links for articles and what-not:
KOIT.com:
http://www2.koit.com/fall/pet_column_detail.cfm?filename=1071010932_pets_archive.xml
KGO-TV ABC-7:
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/news/111803_nw_drug_horses.html
The San Francisco Chronicle:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/05/28/PNGFB6Q5R81.DTL