PETA Scientists Work to End the Use of Horses to Treat Spider Bites

The results of a project co-funded by PETA Science Consortium International e.V. (the Science Consortium) – of which PETA India is a member – were recently published, marking a step towards the development of the world’s first-ever treatment for black widow spider bites that doesn’t use horses.

Black widow spiders are shy and not aggressive. They don’t bite unless they feel threatened. But those who are bitten could be treated with a drug that’s made using a cruel process in which horses are repeatedly poisoned and bled.

In this process, which is used with other toxins to make many other medicines and hasn’t changed in more than 100 years, horses and other large animals are repeatedly injected with black widow venom so that their immune systems will produce antibodies to fight off the poison. These antibodies are collected by draining up to two gallons of blood from the animals – every few weeks for their entire lives, without anaesthesia – and then turned into drugs that can be injected into humans who have been bitten by the spider.

In 2016, PETA India revealed that thousands of horses in India are being used as living factories to make drugs. Many horses suffer from anaemia, diseased hooves, eye abnormalities, infections, parasites, and malnutrition while being forced to live in crowded, filthy enclosures without adequate veterinary care.

Drugs made from horse blood expire quickly and can cause illness – and even death – in humans. Since black widow bites are rarely fatal, this means the treatment made from horse blood can be deadlier than the spider bite itself! The project will help create a treatment that will have a longer shelf-life and be safer for humans, all while helping to set a precedent for other companies to follow when making such medicines without using horses or other animals.

In a truly international effort, the research was conducted at the Technische Universität Braunschweig in Germany in partnership with the Centro de Investigación Científica y de Educación Superior de Ensenada in Mexico and co-funded by the Science Consortium and the Center for Contemporary Equine Studies.

This work follows another project funded by the Science Consortium to replace the use of horses and use non-animal methods to produce life-saving drugs, which developed a candidate treatment for an illness called diphtheria.

What You Can Do

The science is in: instead of bleeding, torturing, and injecting horses, donkeys, and mules with toxins, governments should back antitoxin production that keeps both humans and animals safe.

URGE THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT TO CLOSE ABUSIVE EQUINE FACILITIES