July 25, 2005 Nancy Perla Reports, KVOA News 4, Tucson

In Green Valley, one woman has devoted her life to saving horses from the slaughterhouse.

Sunday, she welcomed several new horses into her sanctuary, all newly rescued.

Typically, the horses that come to Equine Voices Rescue and Sanctuary are those used in the pharmaceutical industry.

The urine of pregnant mares is used to create the human hormone replacement drug Premarin. The foals the mothers bear are typically scheduled for slaughter.

Sunday, six horses leapt off a trailer from Canada to get the first glimpse of their new home at the sanctuary in Southern Arizona.

All six were marked for slaughter. They arrived with their auction numbers, orange tags, glued on their backs.

Starting her tractor to deliver food and water to her rescues, Karen Pomroy is the creator of the stables. She opened the not-for-profit horse rescue operation a year ago, to save horses from the pharmaceutical industry.

“Usually female horses are kept pregnant in order to collect the urine to make the hormone replacement drug Premarin,” Pomroy explained.

She says 90 percent of babies like those that arrived Sunday are slaughtered for food.

In the space of a few hours, the new arrivals began playing in the stables and rolling in the dirt.

“There’s 15,000 out there that need homes, but I feel like at least I’m doing something about it on a small scale,” Pomroy said.

She now has 21 rescued horses on her property. But nearly 70 horses have filtered through here on their way to adoption.

“What I love about the work that I’m doing is that I’m taking an animal that was slated to be steak on someone’s plate and then I’m nurturing them back to health and finding good loving homes for them,” she added.

If you’d like to help, Equine Voices asks for apples, carrots, crushed garlic, hay, and horse trailers, among other items.

You can volunteer or donate, too. The phone number is: 520.398.2814.