MAST heimtar óklippt myndefni frá dýraverndunarsamtökum: „Við munum ekki afhenda neitt myndefni“

Dýra­vernd­un­ar­sam­tökin sem standa á bak­við heim­ild­ar­mynd­ina um blóð­mer­a­iðn­að­inn á Íslandi neita að senda MAST óklippt myndefni líkt og MAST hefur beðið um. Telja sam­tökin MAST vera part af vanda­mál­inu.

Sjá einnig: MAST rann­sakar hrylli­lega með­ferð á blóð­merum

Þýsk-aust­urísku sam­tökin, AWF/TSB hafa sent opið bréf til MAST þar sem þau fara yfir það lið fyrir lið hvað þeim finnst um blóð­mer­a­iðn­að­inn og þátt MAST í vanda­mál­inu. Segjast sam­tökin vilja ræða við MAST og hjálpa yfir­völdum í rann­sókn sinni á mál­inu en neita að taka þátt í að gera bændur að blóra­bögglum, vanda­málið liggi í kerf­inu sjálfu, eft­ir­lits­kerf­inu og hjá lyfja­fyr­ir­tækj­unum sem græða á blóð­inu.

Niðurlag opna bréfs­ins

Mynd: Trausti Haf­steins­son

„Það er ekki í okkar hags­munum, sem dýra­vernd­un­ar­sam­tök, að ásaka ein­stak­linga heldur kerfið sem skapar störfin sem stuðla að slíkri grimmd. Til að tryggja per­sónu­leg rétt­indin ein­stak­ling­anna sem sjást í heim­ild­ar­mynd­inni án þess þó að vera auð­kennd, munum við ekki afhenda MAST nokk­urt myndefni. Ef að rík­is­sak­sókn­ar­inn mun hefja rann­sókn á mál­inu erum við til­búin að vinna með honum.“

Hér er bréfið í heild sinni:

Tierschutzbund Zürich  

Kempttal­strasse 29  

CH-8308 Illnau  

Tel. +41 (0)44 482 65 73  

[email protected]  

www.tierschutzbund-zuerich.ch Mat­væla­stofnun / Icelandic Food and  Vet­er­in­ary Aut­hority (MAST)  

Aust­ur­vegur 64  

800 Selfoss – Iceland  

Illnau, den 1. Dezember 2021  OPEN LETTER  

(via email)  

and to the media 

2111591 – Investigation documentation re blood farms in Iceland by AWF|TSB  

Dear Ms Björns­dóttir,  

Animal Welfare Foundation (AWF) and Tierschutzbund Zürich (TSB) welcome the fact that the Icelandic  Food and Vet­er­in­ary Aut­hority MAST has decided to tackle the animal welfare violations aga­inst pregn­ant  mares during blood collection for PMSG production. In a letter dated 25th November 2021, MAST  contacted AWF and TSB and asked for assistance. In particular, MAST stated they would like to receive the  investigation report, the name of the farms shown in the film, the dates of film­ing, and the unedited video  clips from the farms.  

In this reg­ard, AWF and TSB would like to explain the following:  

1) No indi­vi­dual cases 

The documentary film (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkHP65O4RUg&t=4s) shows three  blood farms in operation, two of them in detail (fil­med on 10.9. and 15.9.2021). We visited a  fourth blood farm together with Isteka’s mana­ger Arnthor Gudlaugs­son (2.9.2019) but were not  allowed to film or take pictures. We detected systematic animal welfare violations at all four  blood farms. Severe animal cruelty, for example beat­ings, could only be fil­med when the people  concerned felt unobser­ved.  

This is a systematic failure of supervision by Isteka ehf., as the vet­er­in­ari­ans contracted by the  pharma company to carry out all blood collections should also ensure animal welfare.  

2) Systemic approach of the stakehold­ers: profit through genetic selection  

Isteka ehf. told AWF and TSB in a per­sonal conversation that they want to optim­ise the use of  blood mares. Ther­efore, the company is intend­ing to breed Icelandic hor­ses that have a hig­her  level of PMSG in their blood during pregnancy. The pharma company is pursu­ing the stra­tegy to  genetically select a “blood breed” of horse, in order to achieve hig­her blood yields with the same  num­ber of animals.  

Critics: The Icelandic horse breed is genetically adapted to the economic inter­ests of the pharma  company. This goes aga­inst Iceland’s stra­tegy to conserve the pure breeding line of Icelandic  hor­ses.  

P 2/  

3) Farmers as pawn sacrifice, used to keep alive the system of blood collection AWF and TSB are furthermore of the opinion that it is not sufficient to pun­ish indi­vi­dual per­sons  and farms that repres­ent a system which is not controllable. The video recordings show that the  supervision by MAST has failed, since at all documented blood farms there are systemic  deficiencies, for example in the infrastructure (inadequate restra­int boxes and raceways). With  119 blood farms and over 5,300 mares, it app­e­ars to us that MAST is over­strained with the  control and implementation of improvem­ents.  

The suggestion of Isteka controlling the production with video mon­itor­ing is unrealistic.  Calculation example of video mon­itor­ing: 119 blood farms with up to 10 blood extractions per  sea­son would make 1,190 video files. The whole process lasts 2-3 hours on average, which would  make 2,400 to 3,600 hours of video recordings needing to be checked. To achieve this would be  far from realistic.  

4) Lack of awareness of problems on the part of the company Isteka ehf. 

During an announced visit to a blood farm in 2019, together with Isteka, only about the last 20  blood extractions, out of almost 80 mares, were witnessed by AWF and TSB. Despite the audit  situation, the NGOs detected systematic problems, which had to be pointed out to the  repres­enta­ti­ves of Isteka: unpro­fessional hand­ling (during freeing a mare’s head that had become  stuck), infrastructure that poses a high risk of injuries, for example gaps in the restra­int boxes,  sharp edges on walls, slipp­ery floors in the raceways and boxes. It should also have been obvious  to the Isteka repres­enta­ti­ves that the mares dis­pla­yed panic and fear, as well as other behaviours  that indicate stress.  

5) Ineffective supervision by MAST 

The questions of MAST reg­ar­ding assistance from the AWF and TSB are aimed at pun­is­hing the  infractions and violations shown in the film. On the basis of the ineffectiveness of MAST’s  supervision over past years, there is a great risk that, after pun­is­h­ment of the per­sons and farms  shown in the film, the business will continue as it has for the past 40 years. Furthermore, an  inspection of the blood farms is also possi­ble without our assistance since MAST knows all  locations of the 119 blood collections sites.  

6) Semi-wild hor­ses  

Most of the mares used for blood collection are semi-wild hor­ses. Isteka confirms that the horse human-interaction outside of the blood extraction sea­son is minimal. These mares live the whole  year out in the open and only have contact with humans for the pur­pose of blood extraction.  Critics: This leads to a systematic problem. It is not possi­ble to take blood from semi-wild hor­ses  without using violence or causing stress. It is unrealistic and not economically viable to train 5,000  mares to have their blood taken. Furthermore, the blood collection from pregn­ant hor­ses is  unnecessary, since there is a sufficient num­ber of synthetic alt­ernati­ves to PMSG availa­ble on the  market. 

P 3/  

7) Economic inter­ests take pri­ority over animal welfare  

Criticism should also be aimed at the fact that MAST has app­roved the volume of 5 litres of blood  per week to be taken from each mare. This amount is a multiple of the volume that exist­ing  guidelines recommend, and it contradicts all international stu­dies and recommendations known  to us.  

8) Unlawful app­roval  

The production is app­roved by MAST as animal experimentation, but since alt­ernati­ves are  availa­ble (synthetical hor­mo­nes, zootechnical mea­sures), the app­roval is in breach of the  Icelandic animal welfare legislation which is based on the principle of the 3 Rs: replacement,  reduction, refinem­ent. 

9) Obvious systemic deficiency: inadequate infrastructure 

During the blood extraction sea­son from July to Sept­em­ber, AWF and TSB found 40 out of the  officially stated 119 blood farms. Many times, fresh excrements or empty Isteka blood canisters  were proof that the blood farms were active at the time of the NGO inspection.  

None of the documented 40 blood farms had suita­ble infrastructure for safe blood collection.  For example, none of them had a non-slip floors inside the restra­int boxes. There were no  raceways that were designed in a way that would allow foals and mares safely walk and stand  next to each other; the forced separation increases the stress levels of both the mares and foals.  In addition to the problems of infrastructure, AWF and TSB documented further violations aga­inst  the animal welfare legislation at the four blood farms in operation (beat­ings, use of dogs, fear and  panic in the hor­ses). Conclusion: These are not indi­vi­dual cases, since 100 % of the obser­ved  blood farms violate the animal welfare law.  

10) One-sided profit for blood far­mers and the pharma company Isteka  

AWF and TSB get the impression that the economic inter­ests of blood far­mers are placed ahead  of the inter­ests of other owners of Icelandic hor­ses. It is evident that the inter­ests of blood  far­mers and the pharma company Isteka are being pursued one-sidedly. The application of Isteka  to increase the volume of blood obtained from pregn­ant mares from currently 170,000 litres up  to 600,000 litres, which is currently awaiting a decision, only ser­ves the profits of the pharma  company. Already today a control of the blood collection business is not possi­ble, although it has  exi­sted for 40 years. An app­roval of the massive increase of the blood collections would make any  supervision impossi­ble. Furthermore, the proportion of blood mares compared to the total  num­ber of Icelandic hor­ses would be around 30 %. With the intention to optim­ise blood mares  for blood collection through selection, this would be in the medium term an intervention into the  breed of Icelandic hor­ses.  

P 4/  

AWF and TSB are prepared to talk to MAST. However, the NGOs are of the opinion that using the far­mers  as pawn sacrifice is not the solution to end­ing the massive, systematic animal cruelty aga­inst blood mares.  PMSG is a booster for the economic inter­ests of European industrial animal breeding companies and of  the Icelandic pharma company Isteka ehf. At the same time, PMSG is responsi­ble for massive animal  suffer­ing and decreasing the income of the majority of Icelandic horse owners.  

The only solution to end the animal cruelty is a ban on the blood collection from pregn­ant mares for  economic pur­poses. The app­roval of blood collection under the label of “animal experimentation” is not  legally tena­ble.  

It is not in our inter­est, as animal welfare organisations, to accuse indi­vi­dual people but rather the system  that creates the jobs that result in such cruelty. In order to safegu­ard the per­sonal rights of the people  who are shown in the film but made unrecognizable, we will not hand over any footage to MAST. If the  public prosecutor’s office should open an investigation, AWF and TSB are prepared to cooperate.  

Yours sincerely,  

York Ditfurth and Sabrina Gurtner  

Chairman AWF|TSB Project Manager AWF|TSB