PETA Global Issue 2

Blood, Sweat, and Fears: Horses Abused to Make Antitoxins Imagine you’re in the emergency room, suffering from a venomous snake bite. The treatment has been the same for 100 years: one or two shots of antivenom. But have you ever wondered where that comes from? PETA India took a look inside equine facilities that make it and other antitoxins, and what it found may make you feel as sick as any snakebite. But thanks to the resulting eyewitness exposé – as well as non-animal antitoxin research funded by the PETA International Science Consortium – this cruel industry’s days may be numbered.

There is no justification for inflicting this suffering on horses or other equines, because humane methods of antitoxin production exist.

elbow,” a painful inflammation of the joint caused by lying on hard surfaces. Some were so lame that they could barely stand. PETA India inspectors saw animals with infected and untreated wounds and other injuries. One horse’s injured hoof was teeming with maggots. Others were suffering from anemia, malnutrition, parasites, and eye problems, including corneal ulcers, cataracts, and blindness. Workers failed to follow even basic husbandry procedures, and some facilities were not registered with the government as required. Some had pregnant mares and foals, even though they were not officially registered as breeders. An Antidote to Cruelty PETA India provided the government with a mountain of evidence showing that these facilities need to be shut down. India’s Committee for the Purpose of Control and Supervision of Experiments on Animals has already suspended the license of one of the facilities investigated, Mediclone Biotech, as a result of “gross violation” of animal-experimentation guidelines.

There is no justification for inflicting this suffering on horses or other equines, because humane methods of antitoxin production exist. A common process called “phage display” packages DNA from human immune cells into viruses that eat bacteria, or phages, which then pump out antitoxins. The Consortium is funding experts at the Institute for Biochemistry, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany to support the creation of antitoxins to block the diphtheria toxin (with plans to develop more antitoxins in the future). They’ll be manufactured without harming a single animal, which is good news for humans, too, since antitoxins made from horse blood don’t last very long and can make people ill.

Take Action Now Visit PETA.org/Antitoxin to send an e-mail to Indian authorities urging them

to deny equine facilities’ experimentation registration renewals and to revoke their licenses to manufacture biological products.

Global 23