Lu Rong- Antler Velvet, Antler

Cathy Margolin from PAC Herbs took a trip to Alaska to visit a reindeer farm to determine if she was willing to sell Lu Rong or deer antler in her herbal pharmacy.  The farm was open to the public for a small fee. It was a small, family owned farm that sold reindeer meat and their dropped antlers to Chinese medicine companies.  She was allowed to pet the deer and see where they lived but she was not allowed to touch the antler velvet. The antler velvet is very soft like velvet when the antlers are growing. They are extremely sensitive. They are so sensitive that even a soft brush with your hand will scare them and make them hurt themselves or you. Even males who normally fight each other do not touch their enemies’ antlers when they are growing. In order to get antler velvet, veterinarians [hopefully they are using veterinarians] saw off their antlers which is excruciating for the deer. The pain is comparable to getting your tooth extracted or finger chopped off.  Some [but not all] farms give the deer anesthetic or tranquilize them but this may taint the medicinal since the antler velvet gets a lot of blood flow (hence the bright red color in the center). Another form of pain relief that is used is an electrical impulse that numbs the local area without tainting the antler. It is hard to determine which farms do this and which do not. The deer is then bandaged up to stop the blood flow.  Dropped antlers are old antlers that naturally fall off certain times of the year or during fights. They do not have blood flow and no feeling during this time. However the medicinal value and cost has diminished dramatically during this phase since it is essentially “dead” material. Luckily, this farm refused extract deer antler velvet because they thought it was inhumane. They do sell dropped antlers. However, as you can see by her picture the deer are still kept in small, cramped areas despite the fact that small, family owned farms are typically more humane than factory farms or large production lines of animals.  Since there are many botanicals in Chinese medicine which tonify yang it is not necessary to use this product. If you would like to read her full article(it is much more detailed) please visit http://www.pacherbs.com/archives/99