Rows of cautiously labeled bags of raw frozen plasma are strewn inside a winter freezer at a pet hospital in Northern California. Each pack may save a dog’s life: a spaniel that ingested venom, a dachshund with a hemorrhaging disorder, a puppy with parvovirus.
Although the contents of the pouches each appear the same, they are all very unique in color. Some of the body products are from dogs like Augustus, a 55-pound Belgian Malinois whose owner signed him up to donate heart at a canine group body banks, which is modeled after the individual voluntary system.
Various carriers have a more contentious past. Their articles come from donor dogs in California, where lots of dogs and cats live in” shut provinces” as full-time body suppliers. Since the state’s expanding demand for innovative clinical care, these imprisoned animals have provided a steady supply of blood.
For decades, California veterinarians were required to buy heart solely from shut colonies in the position, a program regulators decided would guarantee the products were healthy and the donors completely of diseases. Animal hospitals that made body in-house for their people were prohibited from selling it.
But in 2021, state politicians declared finished provinces inhumane , because the pets are held prisoner. They vowed to replace them with community body businesses, and they mandated that the country’s long-addressed assessment reports been made public.
The law, however, included critical caveats: Only closed colonies for dogs would be shut down, and that phaseout would begin after community blood banks — where owners volunteer their pets to give blood — consistently matched their output.
They’re not even close after three years. California’s closed colonies continue to supply the bulk of canine blood sold in the state.
Many other dogs in desperate need, according to veterinarians, would be killed from injuries and disease without the blood provided by captive donors. But this poses a dilemma for those who want to see the closed colonies shut down.
The Times discovered that the closed colonies produced more than 97 % of canine blood products, including whole blood, red blood cells, and fresh frozen plasma, that the state sold through September of this year. That divide will leave California tethered for many more years to a system it vowed to leave behind.
One of the three community blood banks in the state that is licensed to sell blood products, Ken Pawlowski, clinical director of one of them, said,” I don’t want to see captive dogs.” ” However, it’s a necessary evil at this point”.
Inspection reports and emails, court depositions, and other records reviewed by The Times revealed fresh information about how colonies operate, such as the fact that there is no legal cap on how long a healthy animal can be kept as a donor. Nor are the colonies required to disclose how many animals are euthanized annually.
Animal Blood Resources International, the only company left in California, has closed its doors, according to records that show its facilities take at least a pint of blood from dogs that weigh at least 50 pounds every three weeks. The blood is then packed in ice and taken to a small town outside Sacramento for processing and, in some cases, separation into fresh frozen plasma and other components. Blood products are priced at roughly$ 100 more than$ 700 on the company’s pricing sheet for veterinarians, both in California and elsewhere.
State inspections don’t include the breed of the dogs used, but one facility’s local kennel license listed Labrador retrievers, greyhounds, Great Danes, Pyrenees and other breeds. Federal law doesn’t require the dogs to be let out for exercise, despite the fact that each colony said they would” as needed.”
” This is our first opportunity to peek behind the curtain”, said Jennifer Fearing, a longtime animal welfare lobbyist in California, who helped pass the law.
Fearing claimed that little was known about closed colonies ‘ operations, including the fact that dogs can be kept as full-time donors indefinitely, because closed colonies operated in secret prior to the law.
” This is what we feared, but could never verify”, she said.
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When her 12-year-old Beagle mix, Jake, was discovered with splenic cancer and required surgery, Pat Kaufman lived in Lompoc in the middle of the 1970s. The vet’s office called with good news after removing Jake’s spleen: He was done and ready to be picked up.
Jake had hemorrhage and died within the half-hour it took Kaufman to get there. He needed a transfusion to survive, and there was no blood to give him.
They responded,” Well, there’s no such thing as blood banks for dogs,” Kaufman told The Times. ” I said,’ Maybe there should be.'”
A veterinarian who wanted to start an animal blood bank contacted Kaufman about a decade later, and they both agreed to start their own business.
Kaufman said she originally envisioned a model similar to how people give blood — pet owners could volunteer their dogs and cats to donate — but that state regulators pumped the brakes on the idea.
The donor animals would need to reside in quarantine, which would make it difficult for them to travel. She proposed taking unwanted dogs out of shelters to become donors, and later placing them in homes. She recalls that “protests ended that” in her thoughts.
California long required veterinarians to buy blood products from these closed colonies. The one Kaufman founded, which is now called Animal Blood Resources International, with locations in Dixon, California, Michigan, and Hemopet, which closed its nonprofit Garden Grove blood bank this year, served as the state’s sole source of animal blood sales.
Kaufman, who retired a few years ago and sold the company to Chief Executive Scott Horner, said she approved of the shift toward volunteer blood banks, but said that kind of setup would not collect enough blood to meet demand.
It’s a wonderful idea, but it’s probably impossible, Kaufman said.
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The company Kaufman founded became one of the largest commercial blood banks in the country, now contracting with three closed colonies in Northern and Central California that are inspected annually by the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Approximately 650 donor dogs and 530 donor cats were present in the colonies, according to inspection reports from 2022. Inspection records show one contract colony reported in 2019 that nearly all of its donor dogs were bred into the program.
State inspectors discovered last year that Animal Blood Resources International sold heartworm-causing blood. Earlier inspection reports obtained by The Times found water pooling in the bottom of the barrels dogs slept in at one colony, and “many flies” in a blood collection area at another.
Dan Kramer, the company’s spokesperson, claimed the dog had been taken from the donor pool after self-reporting the heartworm diagnosis. Since heartworm can’t be transmitted via transfusion, he said, no recipient dogs were affected. He claimed that the inspector had likely noticed water pooling after the company had cleaned the shelters and that the company had followed the state’s recommendations for more fly strips in the area where there were flies. He said no citations were issued for any of those incidents, and that the company has never had an animal welfare violation.
Feather Ranch Kennels, a contractor in Los Banos that works with 200 dogs, is surrounded by barren, empty farmland. Several rows of covered chain-link pens house dogs on the property. Black and white Labradors were seen romping around inside pens one recent morning, excitedly barking and waging their tails.
On its website, Feather Ranch advertises puppies, training programs for hunting dogs and adoption programs. There is no mention of a blood bank. Owner Phil Mueller declined to talk with reporters.
According to Merced County records, he started raising a colony of donor dogs in 2009 to distribute blood all over the country and internationally. State inspection reports reviewed by The Times show that Feather Ranch draws blood from each donor dog every three weeks.
A blood donor was identified by state inspectors last year as having “undocumented lameness,” which was later removed from the donor pool and scheduled for a vet visit.
In the Tehama County town of Corning, Skyline Sporting Dog operated a 281-dog and 336-cat donor kennel that also provides blood products to Animal Blood Resources International, according to a 2022 inspection report. Tom Wright, the owner, stated to The Times in a brief interview that he was considering closing his company.
” I’m tired of it”, he said. Anytime we work with animals, the campaigners say they are concerned about animal rights trying to turn us all into criminals. So I’m done”.
He claimed that California’s blood supply has been greatly affected by the push to shut down closed colonies.
” They’re going to get what they want, and there is not going to be any blood available in California anymore”, he said. ” We have enormous back orders,” he said.
Wright did not elaborate on pressure from animal rights groups or respond to follow-up queries. Kramer claimed that the state conducted two investigations into Animal Blood Resources International and Hemopet based on allegations made by animal rights organizations that the state found to be untrue.
Another inspection last year noted that Skyline was told to avoid collecting blood from pregnant animals to conform with best practices. According to a spokesman for the CDFA, several pregnant animals were found at the facility, which also breeds dogs, raising questions about their potential use as donors. Drawing blood can affect the health of the dog and its unborn puppies.
There was a “very rare” situation where the donor animal had purposefully been bred but had not yet been tested positive for pregnancy when blood was taken, according to Kramer.
” Once it was discovered the donor was pregnant, she was removed from the donor pool, as is common practice. Since this time, we have changed our approach, which requires that female donors be removed from the donor pool prior to breeding, he said.
Kramer said donor dogs receive care” as good or better than any pet at home”. He added that the company’s goal is to help save the lives of animals in California, which has the strictest regulations in the nation for animal blood banks, and that each facility also has a supervision veterinarian.
” We’re very proud of our 30-year record of doing so by supplying a safe, ethical and reliable source of veterinary blood products for which there is no viable alternative”, he said.
He claimed that the volume of dog blood products supplied to California vets has decreased by 32 % since the new law was passed.
” Anyone who understands the kinship and bond many owners have with their pets knows the last thing any pet lover should ever hear is their beloved animal died simply because there wasn’t an adequate supply of blood available in an emergency”, he said. ” But that’s precisely the danger of what these activists are promoting,” he said.
Grant Miller, of the California Veterinary Medical Association, said the veterinary community is divided on whether one model of blood donors is better, but that there is an overwhelming consensus that there is simply not enough blood.
It can take up to six months to receive some products, especially for cats, according to Meghan Respess, national director of blood banking at BluePearl Veterinary Partners. She said BluePearl’s 110 pet hospitals perform approximately 8, 000 transfusions annually. There are roughly 700 dogs and 300 cats whose owners volunteer to donate to its network of neighborhood blood banks across the nation, including two in California. But its hospitals would need three times the number of donors to reach its goal of supplying all of its own blood products in five years.
She said,” It’s undoubtedly a significant issue that may have an impact on the ability to treat some pets.” ” Maybe they have to go elsewhere. If their product can be shipped and located, it might require a longer period of time to arrive.
Miller said it’s clear that shutting down the closed colonies now would be disastrous for the health of pets in California.
According to Miller,” It would not only be a devastating effect, but it would also be a long-term, perpetual issue for Californian animals.” ” That would be very scary for us”.
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Gov. Gavin Newsom didn’t mince words. The governor vetoed a crucial bill that would allow volunteer blood banks to operate alongside donor colonies in 2019.  , He said it didn’t go far enough.
Newsom argued that if closed colonies were completely destroyed, and that dogs are “kept in cages for months and years to harvest their blood for sale.”
It took two more years before the bill phasing out closed colonies would arrive on his desk. With his signature, the state reinstated sweeping privacy laws that had forbid the release of inspection reports and other records.
When The Times sought those inspection reports last year, a state attorney said in a court declaration that California regulators and Animal Blood Resources International disagreed about what should be redacted. According to records, where dogs are kept and how many are in each colony were among the details that were kept secret, according to a CDFA spokesman Steve Lyle, the company sued the state when negotiations broke down.
The Times intervened in court, and a judge ultimately ordered the state to release many of the details.
The state considers adoption programs optional and does not have a cap on the length of time a dog can be kept as a donor of blood. Lyle said officials review protocols from all licensees annually, and” corrective actions are taken where necessary”.
State officials stopped omitting the majority of the information that had previously been included in inspection reports, such as the number of animals staying in each facility and the number of annual animal deaths, despite the new law aimed to improve transparency.
Lyle said the state updated its format for inspection reports to “emphasize key topics and streamline later review” in anticipation of the establishment of new blood banks. According to him, the new format was based on federal inspection reports. Federal inspection reports, however, include the number of dogs at each facility.
According to Lyle, the state agriculture department has suggested more stringent regulation that would require closed colony blood banks to keep a quarterly report on the state of all animals, including those that are euthanized or adopted “once their role in the program ends.” But the regulations would not limit how long a healthy dog or cat can be kept as a donor.
Jean Dodds, president of Hemopet, whose blood bank closed this year, reacted to the idea that closed colonies like hers, which had 86 donor dogs in 2022, were cruel when lawmakers were considering allowing volunteer blood banks in California. Dodds, who was unavailable for comment, warned lawmakers of the need for strict donor guidelines if California moved to a volunteer model.
At a legislative hearing in 2021, Dodds stated that” we need to make sure that the blood is checked, that the donor is checked a few days before a donation, or that the blood they donate is checked for these infectious diseases every time they donate.”” We need to make sure that the blood is checked, that the donor is checked, or that, God forbid, the donor’s death is prevented,”
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The corgi panted rapidly, her wide eyes fixed on the bustling surgical room at Insight Veterinary Wellness Center in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills.
She would need a lifeline if she had a routine spay procedure because of a blood clotting disorder, so she hung an empty bag of fresh frozen plasma from her metal crate door. The plasma came from the hospital’s new community blood bank.
The corgi’s successful transfusion, according to Pawlowski, clinical director of the blood bank and pet hospital, was the fruit of years of hard work, including shepherding the blood bank law through the Legislature. He knew it would take time for a community donation model to outpace the colonies, but he was stunned to see the divide when provided the figures by The Times.
He called it” Holy criminy.” Through September of this year, the state’s three community blood banks sold 25, 868 milliliters of whole blood, red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma, while closed colonies sold 981, 350.
It will take years before community blood banks can catch up, according to Kimberly Carlson, the owner of Brave Unity Blood Bank for Animals in the Bay Area.
” It’s hard to get them up and running, and it’s hard to get people to volunteer their pets]to be donors ]”, said Carlson, whose blood bank opened last year.
The Insight Veterinary Center has evaluated 84 potential donor dogs since its opening in May. Disease screenings, temperament tests and blood type preferences left them with 16 regular donors so far that they hope will come in four times a year.
Alicia Collins received a lifeline from one of those donors.
In May, her 3-year-old Staffordshire bull terrier was dying after a complication during a C-section. Reign had been hemorrhaged and revived while giving birth, but the clinic did not have blood stock.
Staff placed the limp dog in her backseat and told her to hurry.
Reign received three bags of blood products at Insight after driving 30 minutes there. Two came from a Doberman named Zeus, a regular donor at the hospital.
The third was a frozen plasma from a full-time donor dog in one of California’s closed colonies, which was taken from a freezer with older inventory.
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