Is Glue Made From Horses? Facts & Myths

Glue is extracted from trees as well, which is known as organic sources of preparing adhesives. The Red Manjack Tree is found in trees grown in India bearing a sort of fruit. This tree contains a sticky liquid that is suitable to use for commercially preparing glue. Casein glue is made from dairy products like cheese and milk products. Starch extracted from trees and potatoes has high stickiness that makes it perfect glue to fulfill adhesive purposes. The glycerin is mixed to make them thicker to work efficiently.

The adhesive has industrial uses for small and heavy industries such as toys, stationery and has an influential role in packaging. Assembling heavy machinery, branding with labels, and construction industries require strong adhesives. In wooden furniture, the bonds are uses for various purposes. For rejoining or sticking of broken materials variety of glues are available in the market. The adhesives are used mostly in cello, glue sticks, mending shoes, and packaging gifts.

The adhesive in ancient days was used in the form of animal and plant-based compounds. Plant resins are common adhesives that were frequently used thousands of years ago, but now we live in a changing world. This particular industry’s primary function is to provide strong glues at affordable pricing that is not possible to handle with a little quantity driven from natural sources.

So while talking about Elmer`s glue, Is it still prepared with the collagen?

Not really, as the Elmer manufacturers have made a clear statement about using artificial sources for the glue preparation. Anyhow they haven’t disclosed all the ingredients and production techniques due to proprietary rights of Elmer`s glue; still, they rejected the idea of using animal-based raw materials in their adhesives.

Collagen is present in sufficient quantities in the dead animal’s body parts.  

This product was known as “animal glue “in the past, but to remind you that all children’s adhesives are not manufactured from animal sources.

Animal glue was popular thousands of years ago. Still, with the rapid progress of human civilization, this trend vanished; it doesn`t mean it is not happening, some manufacturers are still using horses, but they are quite rare. So horses are used in making glue; it is a fact, not a myth, but for today’s social setup and working under regulations made for animal security, this is fading with every passing day.

People are more aware today than they were in the past, so now sick horses are bought to the slaughterhouses; instead, they are given a cure for their ailment. Every country has a different method to deal with horses due to the cultural hierarchy; some will present their meat to other animals as their favorite food, while in other parts of the world, they will be buried with respect.

Glue and horses are associated, but that doesn`t make it reasonable to use them as material for adhesives in this revolutionary era. Thus making glue with horses is indeed an ancient phenomenon, and now most of the bond is prepared from synthetic compounds.

Now we can get cheap glue with higher quality to serve the purpose of binding several hard and soft materials. White adhesives, including Elmer`s, is made of the rubbery mixture to be prepared with polyvinyl acetate emulsions; now the question arises about their logo. If these companies are not using animal particles, why are they linking their product with pictures of animals, such as smiling bulls? This is not logical evidence to claim these companies to use animals in their products; instead, it might display their organic properties and non-chemical composition.