Along with Argentina and Uruguay, Iceland is one of the few countries in the world, and the only one in Europe, where there are “blood farms”. These are farms where the blood of pregnant mares is taken to extract a hormone, called equine chorionic gonadotropin (eCG or PMSG), produced by the animal’s placenta. This substance is then marketed throughout the world by the vetopharmaceutical industry to improve the reproduction rate of animals raised in battery cages (cows, sheep, sows, etc.).
This lucrative industry has existed in Iceland for over 40 years. The country has nearly 120 “blood farms” but a majority of the general public discovered them last year after the Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) released a lengthy video showing abuse horses during bleeding. A huge shock in the small Icelandic society. But for Arnthór Gudlaugsson, managing director of biotech Isteka, Europe’s largest eCG hormone producer, the hidden camera footage was designed to portray the process too negatively. “Long story short, my personal experience with the video is that it was grossly inaccurate, although uncomfortable to watch in some areas”he comments, laconic.
The images have in any case made it possible to identify the farms involved and the opening of an investigation by the police, which is still in progress. Because the practice is controversial, first, because of the amount of blood taken: up to five liters per mare in just a few minutes and at weekly intervals for eight weeks. This is too much for opponents of the practice who also point the finger at animal welfare issues. These mares, often stressed before bleeding, are bred only with the aim of giving blood all their lives and their foals are, for the most part, sent to the slaughterhouse a few months after their birth.
And then there is an ethical question about the use of the hormone. “Have we really gotten to the point where it is considered normal to manufacture a drug for production animals only to improve their fertility beyond their natural capacity, just so that we have a stable flow of cheap pork at arrangement ?”, asks Rósa Líf Darradóttir, vice-president of the Animal Welfare Association of Iceland. For her, “the cause is not noble”. The regulations were tightened in early August and should allow the authorities to decide on the future of “blood farms” in Iceland within three years.