Protesters to Descend on County Prosecutor’s Office to Call For Charges Against Blood Bank That Denied Sick Cats Vet Care
For Immediate Release:
April 9, 2024
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
Indianapolis –
A pack of PETA supporters will rally outside the office of Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney Jeffrey Chalfant on Thursday, urging him to file animal neglect charges against The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank (TVBB), a locally based operation which denied sick animals veterinary care. It has been more than five months since authorities received evidence from PETA’s undercover investigation into TVBB, which confines 900 dogs and cats to barren kennels and crowded pens and takes their blood every three weeks—even from animals with infections and cancer. But Chalfant’s office still hasn’t taken any action, and dogs and cats continue to be locked up and used for blood collection at TVBB.
When: Thursday, April 11, 12 noon
Where: Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, 111 S. Main St. (at the intersection of S. Sugar and E. Walnut streets), Brownstown
PETA’s investigation revealed, among other horrors, that TVBB failed to provide veterinary care to cats with painful conditions, including Fox, a 13-year-old cat with bloody diarrhea who a manager admitted had “been going down a lot,” and a tiny cat named Vivi who cried out in pain from an excruciating mouth infection that management had known about but failed to address for over nine months. PETA’s investigator was eventually allowed to adopt both cats and seek treatment for them. Fox was euthanized due to gastrointestinal cancer, and Vivi’s mouth was in such poor condition that all her teeth required emergency removal.
Dogs used for their blood are perpetually confined to barren kennels at TVBB.
Credit: PETA
“Nearly 1,000 dogs and cats are confined day and night in this miserable prison-like warehouse, where ailing cats were deprived of adequate care and left to suffer in agony,” says PETA Senior Vice President of Cruelty Investigations Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is urging Prosecuting Attorney Chalfant to hold this cruel, crude operation accountable.”
An Indiana State Board of Animal Health inspection of TVBB confirmed many of PETA’s findings, with state veterinarian Dr. Jodi Lovejoy photographing a whiteboard that listed the names of more than a dozen cats in need of dental care—nine of whom had been on the list for nearly five months.
BluePearl Pet Hospital, VCA Animal Hospitals, and PetVet Care Centers— nationwide networks of veterinary hospitals—all dropped TVBB as a supplier following PETA’s investigation. More than 50,000 PETA supporters urged BluePearl, VCA, and their parent company, Mars Inc., to implement a policy against obtaining blood from captive animals.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone and offers free Empathy Kits for people who need a lesson in kindness. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.
