In 2021, California state lawmakers declared 'closed colonies', facilities that collect and sell blood from dogs and cats, inhumane because the animals are held captive. They vowed to replace them with community blood banks and ordered that the state’s inspection reports, long sealed, be open to public scrutiny. Exposed new details reveal the colonies operate with no regulatory limit on the number of years a healthy animal can be kept as a 'donor'. Nor are the they required to disclose how many animals are euthanized annually. After three years, California closed colonies continue to supply 97% of canine blood sold in the state. Blood products from 'colonies' are being sold to veterinarians everywhere for roughly $100 to more than $700.
MELODY GUTIERREZ: For decades, California veterinarians were required to buy blood exclusively from closed colonies in the state, a system regulators decided would ensure the products were safe and the donors free of diseases. Veterinary hospitals that collected blood in-house for their patients weren’t allowed to sell it.
But in 2021, state lawmakers declared closed colonies inhumane because the animals are held captive. They vowed to replace them with community blood banks and ordered that the state’s inspection reports — long sealed — be open to public scrutiny.
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. After three years, they’re not even close. California’s closed colonies continue to supply the bulk of canine blood sold in the state.
Without the blood supplied by captive donors, veterinarians say, many other dogs in critical need would die from injuries and disease. But this poses a dilemma for those who want to see the closed colonies shut down.
The Times found that the closed colonies produced more than 97% of canine blood products — including whole blood, red blood cells and fresh frozen plasma — sold in the state through September of this year. That divide will leave California tethered for many more years to a system it vowed to leave behind. “I don’t want to see captive dogs,” said Ken Pawlowski, clinical director of one of three community blood banks in the state licensed to sell blood products. “However, it’s a necessary evil at this point.”
Inspection reports, along with emails, court depositions and other records reviewed by The Times, exposed new details about how colonies operate, including the fact that there is no regulatory limit on the number of years a healthy animal can be kept as a donor. Nor are the colonies required to disclose how many animals are euthanized annually.
Records for the only remaining company with closed colonies in California, Animal Blood Resources International, show its facilities draw roughly a pint of blood every three weeks from dogs that weigh at least 50 pounds. 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. The company’s pricing sheet for veterinarians, both in California and elsewhere, lists blood products for roughly $100 to more than $700.
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. The dogs are kept in pens large enough that federal law does not require them to be let out for exercise, though each colony reported they do “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 said because closed colonies operated in secret prior to the law, little was known about their operations, including that dogs can be kept as full-time donors indefinitely. “This is what we feared, but could never verify,” she said. SOURCE…
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