Victory! BluePearl, VCA Stop Using Blood Bank: PETA Suspends Campaign

For Immediate Release:
April 5, 2024

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Los Angeles –

Below, please find a statement from PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch in response to BluePearl Pet Hospital and VCA Animal Hospitals’ confirmation that they are no longer purchasing blood products from The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank (TVBB) in Indiana. The decision follows a PETA undercover investigation that revealed that TVBB keeps more than 900 dogs and cats perpetually confined to barren kennels and severely crowded pens and draws their blood every three weeks—even from animals who suffered from infections and cancer:

After a hard-hitting exposé, peaceful protests, and e-mails from more than 50,000 PETA supporters, BluePearl Pet Hospital and VCA Animal Hospitals have cut ties with The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank, where emaciated and sick dogs were kept in barren surroundings for life and used as living blood bags. PETA is now suspending its campaign against these veterinary hospital chains, and we urge veterinarians everywhere to source blood only from healthy animals who live in homes with loving families, as all dogs and cats should.

Dogs used for their blood are perpetually confined to barren kennels at TVBB.

Credit: PETA

PETA’s video footage revealed that some animals being kept captive at the blood bank had pressure sores and growths from being forced to lie on hard floors without respite; that dogs were seen with wounds after being attacked by stressed kennelmates, including one who developed a deep infection of the skin and underlying tissue, causing a massive wound that still hadn’t healed seven weeks later; that cats with respiratory infections were still bled; and other atrocities. Even senior animals and those too small to be used for blood collection were warehoused indefinitely. As one worker said, they “stay here until they die.”

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.