Uruguay | Cerro Largo | Blood farms for hormone production

At 8:00 in the morning, two gauchos on horseback arrive at the blood farm, herding 30 to 40 horses. Shortly after, two employees are observed moving the horses from the holding pens into the raceway leading to the extraction building. One of them is waving a long stick with a white flag on the end and the other a stick with a plastic bag attached. The latter is seen hitting the horses on their heads and poking them forcefully in their side with the end of the stick. The mares are very agitated and look in distress.

At 9:20, we count 15 horses in the paddock closest to the building, including two foals. Several mares in this group are clearly pregnant, some are very thin. A dark-brown mare is injured on the left hind leg and holding it up. In the small pen into which the horses are released from the restraint boxes, we observe two horses and recognize the seriously injured white mare that we saw two days ago. She can still not put any weight on her right hind leg and is hobbling on three legs.

At noon, two employees carry out cleaning duties. At 14:00, all activities on the blood farm site have stopped. Shortly after, we find the seriously injured white mare on a pasture. Her injured leg has been sprayed with disinfectant blue spray, but she is still in a very bad condition and can hardly walk. The leg is most probably broken, judging by the way she is holding it up. Whether or not, the mare should be euthanized immediately. The fact that the wound has been sprayed with blue spray shows that the injury has been detected, but no appropriate measure was taken. The mare is kept alive as long as she can give blood. The blood business is obviously more important than releasing an animal from suffering.