AAVS News
November 12, 2026
She was known only as #157
Dear Friend,
Did you know that some hormone replacement drugs, such as Premarin, are made from pregnant horses’ urine? On PMU (pregnant mares’ urine) farms, mares are impregnated again and again. For six of the 11 months of each pregnancy, most are confined in stalls too narrow to turn around in, with urine-collection gear strapped to them. Their foals are treated as byproducts, and when mares are “used up,” many are sold for slaughter.
This cruelty is still happening today. Many of these mares never get names. They’re known only by numbers freeze-branded on their bodies.
Peggy is a Belgian Draft horse, a breed which is often exploited for PMU because they’re so gentle. For years she was #157, the number of the stall where she stood on a Canadian PMU farm. Peggy was going to be sold for slaughter and a younger mare named Annie, who also wore #157, would take her place.
Then the farm went out of business and the founder of Equine Advocates, Susan Wagner, bought its last 46 mares in the sanctuary’s largest rescue ever. Peggy was pregnant and that spring she gave birth to a daughter, Melanie, who would likely have been sent to slaughter or put on a PMU line herself.
Today, Peggy is about 30 years old. She shares a pasture called “Field of Dreams” with Melanie, Annie, and Mark, a former urban carriage horse. There are no cramped stalls and no fear. Just hay, grass, safe shelter, and room to run with friends.
Thanks to you, AAVS has supported Equine Advocates for many years through our Sanctuary Fund, helping provide lifelong care for Peggy and other mares and their now-grown foals rescued from the PMU industry. You make happy endings like Peggy’s possible.
Peggy spent years as a number. Now she has a name, her daughter by her side, and a home where she is loved.
For the Animals,
Luke Klein
CEO
P.S. Peggy’s new life began because people cared enough to act. Please give to the Sanctuary Fund today to help rescue and care for more animals who were exploited.