German company Ossacur AG, a leading supplier of osteo-productive and osteo-conductive bone formation products, has had ninety Icelandic ponies slaughtered to harvest a growth hormone from the bones of the ponies reports Morgunbladid today. This is the third year in a row that the company has had Icelandic ponies slaughtered.
The hormones are used to heal broken bones. According to Roberts Rettenmeier, an employee at Ossacur, experiments on using the substance are currently underway in Switzerland.
The ponies are slaughtered in Sláturfélag Suðurlands (SS) and Robert says that it is likely that an additional 60 ponies will be felled.
Robert says that the Icelandic ponies are chosen because of how easy it is to find healthy ponies in Iceland.
Hermann Árnason, the manager of the SS slaughterhouse in Selfoss, says that bones are taken from both front and rear legs of the ponies. When asked if SS slaughters ponies for this purpose for other companies Hermann said that they only did this for the Germans.
Ossacur, established in 1990, is the subsidiary of Danfoss in Denmark and located in Oberstenfeld in Germany.
SS is a co-operative food producer, owned by farmers in the southern part of Iceland and shareholders. The company was founded in 1907.
