New Mobile Ad Demands Rescue of Greyhounds Bled for Profit

After Patterson Veterinary Wriggles Out of Pledge to Aid Dogs Abused by Blood Farm, PETA Ups the Pressure With High-Octane Billboard

For Immediate Release:
October 5, 2017

Contact:
David Perle 202-483-7382

Billion-dollar enterprise Patterson Veterinary Supply, Inc., based in St. Paul, has reneged on its pledge to help the 150 or so greyhounds revealed in PETA’s exposé to be confined to kennels at a Texas outfit called The Pet Blood Bank, Inc., whose blood products Patterson distributed. One day after the exposé broke, Patterson promised to ensure the dogs’ care, but less than a week later, the company released a statement saying that it wouldn’t help rescue the dogs. In response, PETA has hit the gas on a mobile billboard showing a greyhound languishing in the dirt on the blood farm and calling on the company to help retire the dogs.

The mobile ad will circle the company’s headquarters at 1031 Mendota Heights Rd. and busy shopping areas for a week, from Thursday, October 5, through Wednesday, October 11.

“Patterson Veterinary Supply has turned its back on the dogs kept in dirt runs at this blood bank,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling on this billion-dollar company to buy these used, miserable dogs and allow reputable greyhound rescue groups, which are standing by, to take them in and find them good homes.”

Patterson declined an invitation to meet with PETA, whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way,” three days before the group’s exposé was published online and in The Washington Post. Patterson’s only public response came after more than 40,000 people e-mailed CEO James Wiltz to urge the Fortune 500 company to use its resources to secure lifetime care for the dogs. Since then, thousands more people have echoed the call, including on the company’s Facebook post about PETA’s exposé.

For more information, please visit PETA.org/Bloodbank.