Thank you for the question.
The PMU industry is a vital industry in western Canada. It used to be a vital industry in eastern Canada. In fact, my family had over 400 pregnant mares tied up in the barn.
During a mare's gestation, when she is pregnant, she excretes lot of estrogen in her urine. That urine is then collected and transported through different pharmaceutical companies, and it goes into making hormone replacement therapy for women suffering the debilitating side effects of menopause. It is also an estrogen source for birth control pills, and it is used in a lot of other pharmaceutical products.
The mare has to be pregnant in order to collect this hormone. Canada has some of the best standards of animal care within the PMU industry. We pride ourselves on that. We have other companies looking to come to Canada to secure sources of pregnant mares' urine to refine this hormone. If we lose this market for these foals, the reality is these foals are still going to be bred. They are still going to be raised on these farms for this industry. These growers are under contract.
That is why I think this bill.... We and our members market several of these horses annually.
Bill, do you have anything you would like to add?