Video: Sick, Injured Greyhounds Constantly Caged for Blood at Hemopet

PETA Calls On National Greyhound Association to Send ‘Unwanted’ Dogs to Homes, Not Cruel Canine Blood Banks

For Immediate Release:
October 12, 2018

Contact:
Audrey Shircliff 202-483-7382

As first reported by Associated Press, a new PETA eyewitness exposé reveals that approximately 200 greyhounds—most, if not all, of whom were discarded by the racing industry—are caged for up to 23 hours a day for a year or more in cramped, stressful conditions at canine blood bank Hemopet, a sham “rescue” facility in Garden Grove that boasts that it sells dogs’ blood to more than 2,000 veterinary clinics in North America and Asia.

Photographs and video footage show that dogs there were kept in barren, rusty kennels or locked in crates so small that they could barely stand or even turn around, causing them to develop hair loss, calluses, and pockets of accumulated fluid under the skin, likely from lying on the hard floors. They were bled every 10 to 14 days for up to 18 months—and some even longer—and the frequent bleedings left many of their necks bruised and bloody. Employees admitted that stressed dogs sometimes fought, resulting in torn ears, neck wounds, and bloody cages—and those who fought were sometimes returned to the same pen with each other.

“Like all other dogs, these greyhounds long for companionship and the freedom to move about, run, play, and sleep in a safe, soft spot—but instead, they’re repeatedly stuck with needles and drained of blood and kept caged around the clock,” says PETA Senior Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “PETA is calling on the racing industry to stop its members’ dogs from ending up in blood bank prisons and is urging veterinarians to source blood only from clients’ healthy, larger dogs brought from home for periodic donations.”

The frustrated dogs at Hemopet barked and howled ceaselessly, and the noise added to their chronic stress, which was so constant that many had diarrhea. Workers also stated that one dog, Gibbs, was left to suffer from a large tumor on or near his lungs for weeks before he was finally euthanized.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—has submitted its findings to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Office of the Attorney General, and local law enforcement and requested that all three agencies open investigations.

Hemopet—a registered nonprofit that took in over $1 million in blood-product sales in 2016—was founded by veterinarian Jean Dodds, who once worked on an experiment in which cobra venom was injected into guinea pigs’ body cavities.

Broadcast-quality video footage from PETA’s investigation is available here. For more information, please visit PETA.org.