Help Cats and Dogs Imprisoned for Blood: Contact Your Vet Today

A PETA undercover investigation into The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank (TVBB)—a crude operation in Indiana that keeps nearly 900 dogs and cats confined to barren kennels and crowded pens for life—found that workers bled animals who were elderly, emaciated, medicated, and sick, including with upper respiratory infections or bone cancer. TVBB sells the animals’ blood to veterinary hospitals across the U.S.

After hearing from PETA and thousands of supporters like you about the suffering and unsafe blood-drawing practices at TVBB, PetVet Care Centers dropped TVBB as a supplier and BluePearl Pet Hospital and VCA Animal Hospitals confirmed that they’re no longer purchasing blood from the facility.

But animals at this and other blood prisons still need your help.

Please contact your own veterinarian—even if they work at a BluePearl or VCA clinic—and urge them to implement a policy against sourcing blood from animals held captive anywhere. Ask them to commit to obtaining blood drawn only from dogs and cats who live in homes as beloved family members and are volunteered by their guardians for periodic blood donations.

Here are some suggested talking points:

• As a customer of [Clinic Name], I urge you to reconsider any relationship your clinic has with The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank or any other captive-animal blood bank.
• TVBB keeps hundreds of dogs and cats confined for life to sell their blood to veterinary clinics. Workers drew blood for sale from elderly and emaciated dogs and from animals sick with bone cancer, infections, or other maladies.
• If my dog or cat needed a blood transfusion, I’d expect the blood they received to be healthy and uncontaminated. But if your clinic purchases blood from TVBB or another captive-animal blood bank, I worry that it would put my sick or injured animal companion at risk.
• Please obtain blood only from animals who live in loving homes with loving families and are volunteered for periodic blood donations by their guardians.

If staff at the clinic refer to the current blood shortage, here are some additional points:

• There wouldn’t be a blood shortage if the veterinary community invested more in community-based blood banks. What is your clinic doing to address this situation?
• If patients receive blood purchased from TVBB, there’s a good chance it was taken from animals who were themselves sick or medicated—putting the health of the recipient animal at risk. Wouldn’t you rather see that the “donor” animal was a healthy member of the community?
• Your clinic’s mission is to help animals, but if you purchase blood from TVBB or any other captive-animal blood bank, you’re supporting a business that causes animal suffering.

Looking for more ways to help? Share this alert with your community Facebook groups (be sure to select “Share in a Group”) and with your neighbors on Nextdoor!