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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

A Little Hula Pig and a New Charity





Anuenue ~ Little Rainbow

Starting bid $9.95

Reserve Price $125.00

Buy It Now $195.00

Please click here to bid or Buy It Now

(auction starts tonight @ 6:45 PM PST & will not be viewable until then)

Last week, I read about a little orphaned foal who is in desperate need of help. The post directed me to this sight, http://www.dreamchaserpmu.org/index.htm. After reading reading about this poor little guy and the fate that awaited him and his mother, I couldn't stop from crying and knew I must do something to help. Dreamchaser PMU Rescue and Rehabilitation is now one of my regular charities.

I was also reminded of something that I had heard of in passing, but it never registered until I could put face to it. PMU (pregnant mare urine) horses and their foals are regularly sent to slaughter. They are often sold and shipped off to Europe & Japan where horses are slaughtered for meat. The poor mares are kept pregnant and in stalls where they are tied both front and back for 6 months. Their resulting foals are very often sold off to feedlots as are the mares who do not impregnate readily. Fortunately, this practice is waning because of a 2004 study linking estrogen hormone replacement with cancer and heart disease. But this also means that these horses are now being dumped into a market where there are already hundreds of horses looking for caring homes. The people of Dreamchaser and other rescues like them have the very difficult task of finding these poor animals homes where they will at last know kindness from the hands of humans.

So now you're probably asking "Why a pig and why is it in a hula skirt?". Years ago insulin was derived from pig hormones. Now it is synthetically produced and pigs need not be slaughtered so that people may live. If we can replace pig insulin with a synthetic, why not do the same with horse estrogen? So the little piggy is in a hula skirt because she's been invited to a luau where pork isn't on the menu. 20% from her sale will be donated to help "Orphan" at Dreamchaser PMU Rescue and Rehabilitation.

Good luck bidding!