Cannula in the jugular vein: Icelandic mares bleed for cheap meat

cannula into the jugular vein
Icelandic mares bleed for cheap meat

10/30/2022, 11:01

For more than 40 years, mares have been fertilized in Iceland to obtain a hormone for animal husbandry from their blood. Shock video ignites heated debate on the practice, animal rights activists are shocked. A ban on the so-called blood farms is not initially in sight.

On a large, lush meadow in southern Iceland, more than a dozen pregnant mares are waiting to be bled for the last time this autumn morning. The animals belong to a so-called blood farm near Selfoss: horses are bred only to obtain a hormone for intensive breeding from their blood. Animal rights activists are horrified.

“There is no way to make this type of breeding fully understandable to the public,” says the owner of the horse farm, who wishes to remain anonymous. “The public is too sensitive”. The industry has come under massive criticism since a shocking video of horse abuse in Iceland surfaced online a year ago.

The business model consists of the extraction of the PMSG (serum gonadotropin of pregnant mare) hormone, which is found in the blood of pregnant mares. It is used around the world to increase the fertility of livestock such as cows and pigs. After the mares have given birth, the foals are usually slaughtered on farms.

Mares lose up to five liters of blood per week

Video released last year shows staff beating and hitting horses with sticks and dogs biting horses. Furthermore, the mares are apparently completely weakened by the blood test. Some collapse from exhaustion after resisting being tied up. The footage unleashed a wave of shock both overseas and in Iceland.

On the farm near Selfoss, the mares wait, seemingly calm, until they are herded into wooden crates for blood sampling. The legs are fixed with boards and a halter supports the head. “Horses can be stressed and restless. These restrictions are essentially there to protect them and prevent them from getting injured in the stall,” explains a Polish veterinarian, who also declined to be named.

Mares are anesthetized locally before the vet inserts a large cannula into the jugular vein. Within minutes, up to five liters of blood are drawn from each horse once a week for two months. The business is profitable: he earns up to ten million crowns (a whopping 70,000 euros) a year in blood, says the 56-year-old farm owner, who also works as a lawyer.

Farmers ‘hit hard’ by the video

The Icelandic company Isteka transforms the PMSG hormone into powder. The biotech company is the largest producer in Europe and processes around 170 tons of blood every year. This year it will probably be less: after the publication of the videos, some breeders have given up. “Farmers were hit hard by the video,” says Isteka CEO Arnthor Gudlaugsson. He admits that there have been problematic cases, but the video shot with a hidden camera “represented the practice in too negative a way”.

Police investigated the registrations, veterinary authorities inspected all Icelandic blood farms, and none had to close. But the debate on breeding continues. Many Icelanders have only discovered mare’s blood activity from videos, although it has been active on the island since 1979.

“Producing a drug for farm animals just to raise their fertility above natural – it’s not a noble aim,” says Rosa Lif Darradottir of the fledgling Icelandic Animal Welfare Association. “This is pure animal cruelty,” agrees opposition MP Inga Saeland, calling for the practice to be banned.

Stricter regulations have been in place since August. They are valid for three years. Until then, Iceland wants to make fundamental decisions about the future of blood farms.