I wonder whether the whole flap about Salma Hayek wasn’t due in part to the “interracial” aspect of the breastfeeding. I remember a few years back, after an earthquake in China, a policewoman breastfed an orphaned (?) baby. The news reports in the US were kind of “awww, isn’t that weird but sweet!,” whereas Hayek was more “ewwww, isn’t that weird and gross.” Of course, there’s also the general ambivalence about breastfeeding, too. (i.e., “good” moms breastfeed, but never in public).

And I guess the lactation-inducing injections are a tiny step up – for the foals at least – but still. The problem isn’t “byproduct” foals, it’s that we treat sentient beings like property.

Since I wrote the original post on the “nurse mare industry”, I’ve spoken to some people who say that breeders are now developing a practice of injecting the “nurse” mares with enough quantities of synthetic hormones that they lactate without pregnancy. While this does away with the immense problem of murdering the foals, the effects of this on the mare’s emotional and mental state must be phenomenal, and not in a good way.