From December 2023 to May 2024, our field teams regularly monitored the Biomega blood farm in Melo, Uruguay. At this facility, the fertility hormone PMSG is extracted from the blood of pregnant mares and used to enhance efficiency in industrial animal breeding.

The treatment of the mares at Biomega is both unprofessional and brutal. The terrified…

A TSB|AWF team returns to Uruguay in November 2022 in order to document how conditions for the horses vary before, during and after an audit of the EU Commission. The inspection takes place between the 21st and 25th November 2022. Based on our observations in 2018 and the EU audit report from that year, it is obvious that the slaughterhouses…

During an investigation in Uruguay, we observe the Biomega blood farm over two days. Blood collections from pregnant mares continue to take place to produce the fertility hormone PMSG. We take a look at the wide pastures where the so-called “blood mares” are kept. It is very hot, and the small bushes do not provide enough shade for the horses. The…

During an investigation into PMSG production in Uruguay, we observe the Biomega blood farm for three days. There, blood is taken from pregnant mares for the production of the fertility hormone PMSG. We had already filmed the violent handling of mares during blood collection in 2018, and despite promises by the Uruguayan government to improve the…

In December 2018, two weeks after an audit by the EU-Commission, our team returns to Argentina. At both slaughterhouses Lamar and Land L, new shelters have been installed, particularly for the audit. However, they are too small for the large numbers of horses which are usually kept on the premises. Once again, we see a lot of emaciated, injured,…

Our team inspects a horse auction in Artigas, a town in northern Uruguay. The handling of the horses at the entrance of the auction ring is extremely violent. Auction workers hit the frightened animals with sticks and leather whips. All horses go through the sale regardless of their condition. We even see a horse with a broken leg, heavily pregnant…

Near the Biomega blood farm, a group of 300 mares is moved by two gauchos on horseback on a stony gravel road. They are on the way to a nearby pasture. The horses’ condition is variable: some look healthy, on first glance, and have an adequate body weight, while others are extremely emaciated. The horses have neglected hooves, some with cracks, and…

The blood extraction starts at 8:15 in the morning. Blood is taken for 6 to 13.5 minutes from the pregnant mares. The handling by the employees is extremely unprofessional and cruel. Different objects are used to force the horses into the restraint boxes: long wooden sticks, short pointed sticks, ropes and rubber strings. The mares are…

Our follow-up investigation in Argentina and Uruguay in November and December 2017 showed that nothing has changed since our first investigation in 2012. We documented once again the whole production chain: horse collection centres, rodeos, transports and EU-approved slaughterhouses. At all places visited, horses are still systematically mistreated…