Recent Big Victory for Pregnant Mares in Switzerland
Following a revealing investigation of horse blood farms in Iceland, Switzerland recently became the first country to ban the use of the PMSG hormone obtained from the blood of pregnant mares. Our client Animals' Angels helped to internationally publicize the investigation results, and Switzerland was the first country to respond to the public pressure.
At the farms, up to 5 liters of blood are taken every week from each of 5000 pregnant mares. The blood contains PMSG, a hormone used in veterinary drugs to harmonize the estrus in sows. In addition to having their blood taken, the mares were found to be living in terrible conditions where they are beaten with sticks and chased by dogs. Hopefully, this victory in Switzerland will persuade the European Union to follow suit and disjoin from supporting this cruel practice.
Meet Sonja Meadows, Founder of Animals' Angels
Sonja Meadows epitomizes courage. Originally from Germany, Sonja moved to the US in 2005 and was a practicing lawyer working on behalf of the automobile industry when she encountered a double deck trailer loaded with horses at a gas station. Sonja described how she had watched the trailer shake from the force of the horses kicking their legs against the aluminum. When she peered through the trailer holes to see the horses in distress, the driver angrily told Sonja that the horses would soon all become meat. Like many people in the US, Sonja was unfamiliar with the horse meat industry, and could find very little information on the topic. She quit her lawyer job, and one of her first campaigns was following people loading large quantities of horses to auctions and documenting the treatment of the animals that she witnessed during transport and at auction. Subsequently, she also became a certified humane officer and covert tactics specialist.
In 2007, Sonja founded Animals' Angels, and she has since traveled across the US on behalf of America’s farm animals - visiting auctions, feedlots and slaughter plants, documenting the dreadful conditions that far too often exist. Sonja’s videos exposing cruelty and intolerable conditions have been used by countless media, educating the public about the plight of US farm animals. She is responsible for the first-ever cruelty conviction of the largest auction on the East Coast. She is also behind the exposure & conviction of a large-scale horse rescue that, instead of providing hundreds of horses with a safe home as promised, was shipping them to slaughter. Sonja has testified in court against animal abusers and has lobbied local, state, and federal bodies, advocating for stronger laws and improved conditions for farm animals.
Read full article here: https://www.animaldefensepartnership.org/spotlight-animalsangels/