Gemunu de Silva: Vampire Blood Farms
Species Unite
elizabeth novogratz
5.0 • 911 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2022
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"I mean this is the crazy thing about it, in 35 years of doing animal protection investigations I didn't know this existed. It wasn't even a thing, because it sounds it sounds too crazy to actually believe - that you'd get blood from pregnant horses and then it helps productivity in pigs." – Gemunu de Silva
Gemunu de Silva is the co-founder of Tracks Investigations. He is a filmmaker and an activist who's been investigating and documenting animal rights abuses since the 1980s. Tracks has completed over 260 investigations. 35 animal rights and protection organizations have benefited from their work in 57 countries.
Gem has been on the podcast before - - in fact, he's becoming a regular. This time is is here to talk about one of Tracks most recent investigations, horse blood farms in Iceland.
Yes, it's as horrific as it sounds:
Semi-wild pregnant horses are corralled into restraint boxes to have their blood taken, for the hormone, Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin (PMSG).
The PMSG is then converted into powder and shipped to factory farms in the US, UK, and EU. It's used in pigs (mostly), to increase reproduction.
We do an astonishing number of terrible things to non-human animals all over the planet, but this one really shocked me. Not only is this industry incredibly cruel but it's also really creepy.
Not many people know that this industry even exists. After Track's investigation was released in Iceland, much of the country went into an uproar.
It was an absolute honor to have Gem back on the show to kick of Season 8!
Learn More About Tracks Investigations
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Species, unite, unite. |
| 0:07.0 | Species unite. I mean this is the crazy thing about it you know I've in 35 years of doing animal |
| 0:19.9 | animal protection investigations I didn't know has existed that it wasn't even a |
| 0:25.1 | thing you know because it sounds it sounds too crazy to actually believe isn't it |
| 0:28.9 | really that you'd get blood from pregnant horses and then helps productivity in pigs. Hi I'm Elizabeth Novigrats. This is Species Unite. We have a favor to ask. If you like today's |
| 0:50.9 | episode and you have a spare minute, |
| 0:53.9 | could you please rate and review Species Unite |
| 0:56.5 | on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to Podcasts. |
| 1:00.8 | It really helps people to find the show. This conversation is with Geminu de Silva. |
| 1:14.0 | Gem has been on the podcast before. |
| 1:16.0 | He's the co-founder of Tracks Investigations. |
| 1:19.0 | He's a filmmaker and an activist who's been investigating |
| 1:22.0 | and documenting animal rights since the 1980s. |
| 1:24.8 | I met up with GEM in London a couple weeks ago |
| 1:27.5 | to talk about one of their latest investigations. |
| 1:30.3 | It's something I never heard of before and it absolutely back in London. Thanks Beth for being here. It's really good to see you and to be back in London. |
| 1:53.4 | Thanks Beth for inviting me back onto the Species United Podcast. It's always a pleasure to come back. |
| 1:58.4 | I love that you are a regular. So for people who haven't heard your other episodes, |
| 2:03.4 | will you give a little background who you are and what you do? |
| 2:06.9 | I'm the executive director of Tracks Investigations. |
| 2:11.2 | This is an investigation agency that I set up 15 years ago to help animal |
| 2:16.6 | protection groups around the globe investigate animal cruelty. So far we've done almost 270 projects in six continents in 58 countries |
... |
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