For Immediate Release:
October 9, 2021
Contact:
Megan Wiltsie 202-483-7382
Sacramento, Calif. – Gov. Gavin Newsom has just signed a bill that PETA fought hard to get passed: California Assembly Bill 1282, which will phase out the operation of businesses that keep dogs perpetually caged for their blood and, instead, will allow healthy canine companions already in loving homes to be volunteered for occasional, safe blood collection. Until today, California was the only state that required canine blood sold for veterinary transfusions to come from operations like Hemopet, where PETA documented that greyhounds were kept in cramped crates and barren kennels; suffered from ailments including hair loss, calluses, and cuts on their paw pads from metal cage wires; and were desperate for attention and a respite from their near-constant confinement. Workers took such massive amounts of blood from dogs, so often, that experts agreed that it was potentially dangerous.
Below, please find a statement from PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch:
“Cheers went up at PETA today at the news that California is finally phasing out the operation of hellish facilities like Hemopet, where we found terrified dogs being used as living blood bags and caged 23 hours a day. Thanks to Gov. Newsom and the state legislature, California can soon welcome community blood banks, where healthy dogs can make a lifesaving difference for others and then return home to their loving families.”
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information about PETA’s investigative newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
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