PETA Protesting At Local Animal Hospital; Dispute Over Conditions At The Veterinarians Blood Bank
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is sending what it calls a pack of PETA supporters, all of them sporting cat and dog masks, to the VCA Desert Animal Hospital on Ramon Road at Calle Santa Cruz in Palm Springs on Wednesday March 27th 2024 at 12 noon.
The protesters will then lie down at the front door of the animal hospital, simulating they have dropped dead, according to PETA.
Why the protest?
PETA says the hospital gets blood from an organization called The Veterinarians’ Blood Bank, and PETA wants the animal hospital to stop doing that.
PETA says the Veterinarians Blood Bank draws blood from hundreds of dogs and cats which PETA claims are held captive in crowded, barren cages, and spend their lifetimes having blood drawn from them, to help save other animals. PETA says the captive animals are often elderly, emaciated, sick, and denied adequate veterinary care.
PETA is calling on VCA Animal Hospitals to commit to obtaining blood only from healthy dogs and cats who live in loving homes and are responsibly volunteered for periodic blood donations by their guardians.
An Indiana State Board of Animal Health inspection of the Veterinarians Blood Bank has confirmed many of PETA’s undercover investigation findings, that old dogs and cats are donating blood too often, being kept in rusty, barren kennels without bedding or solid surfaces, and suffer from hair loss, skin tags, and pressure sores, from being forced to lie on hard kennel floors without any bedding for years.
PetVet Care Centers—a nationwide network of veterinary hospitals—dropped The Veterinarians Blood Bank as a supplier following PETA’s investigation. To date, over 50,000 PETA supporters have urged VCA’s 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.
Photo of a large dog inside a cage kennel, from People For The Ethical Treatment of Animals. March 26th 2024
