PETA Exposes the Suffering of 10 Dogs Used by Hemopet

Greyhounds used in the racing industry are treated like unfeeling machines and run until their bodies are broken and destroyed. But for many of those dogs, “retirement” means even more suffering.

A PETA eyewitness investigation revealed that the canine blood bank Hemopet—which claims to be a “rescue” facility for discarded greyhounds—keeps around 200 dogs in tiny crates and barren, rusty kennels for about 23 hours out of every day. These greyhounds—who, like all dogs, are eager to run and play and long for companionship—are reduced to being bled for cash.

Sick, suffering, and stressed, these dogs have been forgotten by the world, but PETA wants you to know some of their stories.

Glory (DOB: March 1, 2014)

Under the racing name Gloryusfinish, Glory was raced over 160 times before she was discarded at Hemopet, where she was bitten on the back by her stressed kennelmate. After her wound healed, the kennel supervisor put her back in the pen with the same dog who’d bitten her—despite a warning by another staff member that the two were not a good match—with instructions to keep them muzzled and deny them toys.

PETA exposes Hemopet

Gibbs (DOB: Unknown)

Gibbs reportedly suffered from a neurological disorder that often involves tumors in the chest. He quickly became lethargic and barely responded to his own name. A much-needed veterinary appointment was never made for him, according to Hemopet staff. He was left crated for weeks until a worker found blood in his water bowl. He was finally euthanized after an X-ray revealed that he had a large mass on or near his lungs.

PETA exposes Hemopet

Pidgeon (DOB: Unknown)

Pidgeon was apparently attacked by her kennelmate, resulting in gashes on her neck that required stitches.

PETA exposes Hemopet

Melyn (DOB: Unknown)

Melyn required sutures on her chin after her kennelmate bit her, but staff reportedly went home for the night, leaving the open wound untreated until the next day.

Bunny (DOB: Unknown)

Bunny suffered from a cough that had apparently persisted for over a year. Her blood was still taken to be sold, despite her ailing condition.

WendyLu (DOB: April 11, 2016)

WendyLu had red, peeling skin on her nose. Hemopet staff speculated that she had lupus but said that no tests had ever been run to diagnose her. Dogs with this disease can have a low platelet count, but her blood was taken, anyway—even though it may not have contained all the components that dogs who are given blood transfusions urgently need.

PETA exposes Hemopet

Lennon (DOB: May 30, 2016)

Workers said that Lennon also suffered from lupus-like symptoms, including an apparent rash all over his body. And like they did to WendyLu, they took his blood, even though a staffer said that “lupus is an autoimmune disease … they probably shouldn’t donate.”

PETA exposes Hemopet

Genie (DOB: Unknown)

Like many of the other dogs at Hemopet, Genie was missing hair. She also had red, irritated skin on her leg. A veterinarian said, “In my professional assessment, the high number of dogs with areas of hair loss and callused skin is indicative that the dogs are chronically suffering from long-term excessive confinement, with limited opportunity for mobility and activity necessary for optimal health and welfare” [emphasis added].

PETA exposes Hemopet

Puppet (DOB: September 26, 2013) and Val (DOB: Unknown)

Staff housed Puppet and Val—who were both prone to seizures—in small, unpadded metal crates amid loud noises and left them unattended overnight. Puppet evidently injured himself during a seizure. A staffer said that Val—who’d been ditched at the facility by his adopter because of his seizures—needed a brain scan. The staffer said that Val “could be in a lot of pain and no one would know.”

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Dogs like these deserve homes, not cages. Here’s what you can do.

Don’t allow greyhounds to continue to suffer where no one can see them. Share these stories with your friends and family. Demand that the National Greyhound Association (NGA) bar its members’ dogs from being held captive in blood banks—including those operated by purported rescue organizations—effective immediately.

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Video: Chained Dog Finally Gets to Know ‘the Love of Family’

Could you say “no” to this face?

Rescued cocker spaniel mix Buster with new family

Neither could Doris and Nile Gomez, who saw Buster’s photo, along with a story about his rescue by PETA, in their local Virginia newspaper. It was love at first sight of those big, brown eyes, and they knew at that moment that they just had to be the ones to give the little black dog a safe, happy home where he would, as Nile puts it, “share the joys and the love of family.”

At just over a year old, Buster had known nothing but loneliness at the end of a chain.

Desperate to escape, he slipped out of his collar and fled. But someone found the little cocker spaniel mix and brought him back. This time, they simply wrapped the chain around his neck, and as he grew, the links became embedded in his skin, causing a raw, infected wound.

But everything changed when Buster’s owners gave him to PETA, and we provided him with emergency vet care and lots of TLC. As his physical wounds healed, he also started to come out of his shell, and we knew that he was ready for his new home.

Buster, a cocker spaniel mix, on a leash

“Hi, sweet boy!” exclaimed Doris, her voice choked with emotion, when she opened the door to greet Buster on adoption day. He placidly seemed to accept this adoration as his due, as if he hadn’t spent the first months of his life being neglected and ignored.

Rescued dog Buster being held by his new guardian Doris

At his new home, Buster has a soft, warm bed to sleep in, toys to play with, and guardians who will make sure that he will never be cold and lonely again. “Dogs are meant to be part of our families,” says Nile. “[T]hey’re meant to be loved … and that’s what we’re hoping to provide for him, just an opportunity to receive lots and lots of love, and Christmas presents!”

Rescued dog Buster being held by his new guardian Doris

What You Can Do

Help protect dogs like Buster by keeping an eye out for chained dogs and alerting authorities whenever you suspect that an animal is being neglected or abused. Also, contact your town council to urge it to pass an anti-tethering law.

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30 Years Ago, PETA Exposed Cosmetics Testing—Look How Much Has Changed

In 1988, PETA conducted an eyewitness investigation into animal-testing laboratory Biosearch. The horrific video footage showed that animals suffered and died in places that few people ever saw during tests for cosmetics and household products. Outraged consumers demanded change. And now, just 30 years later, we can see the monumental progress that we’ve made.

Cosmetics testing on animals has all but ended in the U.S. and is illegal in many countries around the world (including the 28 member nations of the European Union as well as Israel, India, Norway, New Zealand, Turkey, and Switzerland). Many other countries are now considering bills that would ban the tests. Unfortunately, some unscrupulous companies have chosen to sell their products in China, where tests on animals are still required for all imported cosmetics, so China has become the new battleground in the fight to end animal cosmetics testing.

Through PETA campaigns and consumer pressure, we’ve gone from just nine cruelty-free companies in 1987 to more than 3,600 today in our Beauty Without Bunnies cruelty-free database. Our program has become the international gold standard for cruelty-free certification, and we continue to add more companies every day.

We’ve also raised consumer awareness of this issue, which in turn has increased the demand for cruelty-free products—so much so that the industry trend is now solidly moving away from tests on animals. Together, we’ve prevented millions of animals from enduring painful and deadly experiments all over the world.

How It All Started

“Once you’ve been here a few days, you lose respect for all living things. Torturing animals is the name of the game.”

—Biosearch employee

The PETA eyewitness got a job at Biosearch’s Philadelphia laboratory in the fall of 1988. She documented pervasive cruelty, including that experimenters kept animals in filthy, feces-ridden cages; denied them adequate food; deprived them of water for days at a time; denied them necessary medical care and painkillers; and tormented them by pouring chemicals into their eyes, rubbing them into their skin, injecting them into their bodies, and forcing them down their throats.

Staff dripped  insecticides, colognes, septic tank cleaner, and more into rabbits’ eyes and then observed the extent of the damage over the course of three to 21 days. They admitted that the tests were not required by law.

Experimenters repeatedly rubbed caustic chemicals onto guinea pigs’ skin until it ate the skin away. They put rabbits through a similar ordeal; the corrosive chemicals burned away several layers of skin, causing them to scream in pain. The compound that was being tested had been in use for years and was already known to be corrosive.

Mice were drowned in bottles of cooking oil. Workers injected makeup compounds into the backs of others before taping them down onto a board, standing the boards up vertically, and placing them in front of a high-intensity sun simulator. Half the animals died in the intense heat.

Rabbits’ ears were cut off while they were still alive, and blood poured from the wounds.

Rats were locked inside tiny metal boxes that were pumped full of noxious chemicals, which they were forced to breathe. Their lungs filled with fluid and they slowly drowned or suffocated while having to see the animals imprisoned next to them die, too. Experimenters admitted that no humans would ever be in a situation in which they would inhale that much of the chemical.

Other rats were force-fed an insecticide and left convulsing for at least 14 hours while laboratory staff went home.

During the yearlong investigation, PETA uncovered more than 100 violations of federal and state laws. We turned our findings over to law-enforcement agencies and gave them to Congress, and we released our investigation video publicly. The ensuing outcry against animal testing has lasted for three decades and resulted in countless victories for animals.

How We’ll Win the War on Animal Testing

PETA has continued conducting eyewitness investigations into laboratories, exposing atrocities, ensuring that cruelty charges are filed against offenders, and seeing tests ended and laboratories shut down. And we continue to negotiate with companies—launching campaigns against them if necessary—in order to persuade them to end tests on animals and earn our cruelty-free certification.

A large part of PETA’s success depends on our more than 6.5 million members and supporters worldwide, who urge companies to stop testing on animals and who vote with their dollars for cruelty-free products.

For help shopping cruelty-free, please continue using our online searchable global database of companies that do and that don’t test on animals. And please continue to join PETA in telling cruel companies that you won’t buy while animals die.

Together, we will end tests on animals for cosmetics and other products.

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PETA’s 2018 Company of the Year Made Boss Move by Banning Meat

Raising awareness of the meat industry’s violent abuse of animals and the environmental destruction that it causes takes work. But PETA’s 2018 Company of the Year, the New York–based shared-workspace giant WeWork, proves that any business can help save animals and the planet.

Earlier this year, WeWork told its global staff that it will no longer supply meat at company events or in the self-serve food and drink kiosks in its more than 450 locations. In addition, the company’s roughly 6,000 employees will not be reimbursed for any meals containing cow, lamb, chicken, duck, turkey, or pig flesh.

PETA's 2018 Company of the Year

Earlier this year, WeWork also received PETA’s Compassionate Business Award for its bold policy that will spare roughly 3 million animals annually.

WeWork cocreator Miguel McKelvey told The New York Times that the policy comes from an “awareness and a mindfulness perspective” and that the company wanted “to develop personal accountability in our team.” Go, WeWork!

It’s no surprise that a company passionate about sustainability would ban meat.

Animal-based agriculture uses 83 percent of the world’s available farmland and is a catalyst for deforestation. Farm cesspools filled with animal feces, urine, rotting body parts, and concentrated chemicals pollute natural resources and poison communities unfortunate enough to live next to them.

As a company, WeWork can save “an estimated 16.7 billion gallons of water, 445.1 million pounds … of CO2 emissions, and over 15 million animals by 2023 by eliminating meat at our events,” WeWork stated in an e-mail—obtained by CNN—to employees.

Work to Save Sensitive Animals From a Miserable Life and Terrifying Death: Go Vegan

Leaving animals off your plate is the easiest job in the world. Best of all, you’ll prevent nearly 200 of them every year from enduring violence and rampant abuse in the meat, egg, fish, and dairy industries—where many are crammed into filthy sheds or tiny cages, routinely mutilated, and slaughtered by having their throats slit, often while they’re still conscious.

Order PETA’s free vegan starter kit today. If you’re already vegan, great—send a kit to a friend or family member!

Order Your Free Vegan Starter Kit

Send a Vegan Starter Kit to a Friend

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We Doubt This Cat Is Doing ‘Sit-ups’—There’s Something More Dangerous Happening

A viral video of a cat acting in a strange manner while under a car is making the rounds on the internet. But while folks debate what the unaccompanied feline is actually doing (sit-ups, really?), many may not realize that the animal is in imminent danger.

While some call the video—which media outlets billed as an encouragement to hit the gym—”cute,” it’s unclear whether the cat is in distress, stuck under the car, or simply in the middle of a grooming session. However, we do know that a parking lot is a dangerous place for any unaccompanied animal and that cats left to fend for themselves outdoors are vulnerable to life-threatening hazards.

Make no mistake: Cats are domestic animals who rely on humans for their every need, from food and water to medical care, warmth, and safety.

Horrific fates await most homeless cats—they don’t die of old age. Outdoors, they’re vulnerable to contagious diseases, parasite infestations, starvation, dehydration, freezing, heatstroke, attacks by dogs and other predators, and being hit by vehicles. During winter months, automobile engine fans cut through cats who seek shelter from the cold under car hoods.

Humans themselves are a massive threat to roaming cats. Every day, PETA’s office is flooded with calls about cruelty to animals because, across the country, free-roaming cats are mutilated, shot, drowned, poisoned, beaten, set on fire, used in ritual sacrifices, stolen by “bunchers” for medical experiments, and used by dogfighters as “bait.”

Instead of viral notoriety, cats like this need great guardians.

Never allow cats to roam unattended like the one in this video. They can have a rich and stimulating life indoors. If you want your feline friend to enjoy the great outdoors, think about building a “catio” or take the time to leash-train your cat for walks!

If you have the time, resources, and love to give an animal, adopt one from a local shelter. Never buy animals from pet stores or breeders, and be sure to stop the influx of unwanted animals in its tracks by spaying and neutering them.

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U.S. Coast Guard Is PETA’s First-Ever ‘Agency of the Year’

PETA has never before honored an Agency of the Year. But one agency made such a historic and positive impact for animals in 2018 that we wanted to recognize it. For ending the use of animals in abusive and deadly trauma training drills and rescuing hundreds of animals who found themselves abandoned during Hurricane Florence, PETA has named the United States Coast Guard our 2018 Agency of the Year.

The Coast Guard is showing that concern for animals can and should be a factor in decision-making. And it has demonstrated that there is usually a humane solution to every problem.

It was not always so. In 2012, PETA released a shocking whistleblower video of a Coast Guard medical training course in which instructors repeatedly cracked and cut off the limbs of live goats with tree trimmers, stabbed the animals with scalpels to cause internal injuries, and cut into their abdomens to pull out their organs. According to the whistleblower, goats were also shot in the face with pistols and hacked apart with an ax while still alive. Some of the animals moaned loudly and kicked during the mutilations. The disturbing video and the public and congressional outcry that followed strengthened PETA’s campaign to persuade the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to replace animals in trauma training drills with advanced, high-tech human-patient simulators.

In 2017, the Coast Guard suspended its use of live animals in trauma training drills in order to evaluate available non-animal training methods. Soon after, the agency made history by becoming the first branch of the U.S. armed forces to end the use of animals in the drills and to replace them with realistic human simulators to prepare troops better to perform lifesaving procedures and treat traumatic battlefield injuries. PETA continues to urge all branches of the DOD to follow suit. A new law that took effect earlier this year contains a PETA-backed provision that requires the Pentagon to use medical-simulation technology in trauma-skills training “to the maximum extent practicable” before resorting to harming animals in the deadly drills, which will now be a secondary or non-essential element.

The Coast Guard went to bat for animals again during Hurricane Florence. When high-speed winds and floodwaters ravaged the southeastern U.S., service members took substantial risks to save as many humans and animals as they could. Among those saved were numerous animals left behind to fend for themselves by owners who had evacuated, many people and their animal companions who were rescued by boat or airlifted out together, and 10 beagles who were struggling to swim in their submerged pen, desperately trying not to drown.

When a levee broke along the Cape Fear River in the middle of the night, stranding 100 humans and 33 animals, the Coast Guard—together with the National Guard—didn’t wait for the morning light to act. They put on night-vision goggles and, flying through the night, airlifted every one of the humans and animals to safety.

For repeatedly proving that animals are worthy of consideration and that their lives have value, PETA is pleased to honor the U.S. Coast Guard with our inaugural Agency of the Year Award.

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Womenswear Event Celebrates ‘PETA x Coalition LA’ Vegan Collaboration

WWDMAGIC, the largest womenswear trade show in the U.S., recently gathered top influential bloggers and celebrities in the fashion community for a vegan holiday brunch. What was the occasion? Vegan fashion, of course—and a new PETA partnership was the centerpiece of the celebration.

Hailley Howard Photography | WWDMAGIC 

The excitement at WWDMAGIC shows how far ethical, vegan fashion has come.

The cruelty-free afternoon celebrated the collaboration between PETA and womenswear wholesaler Coalition LA, which are currently working with retailers to design custom vegan outerwear capsules. The new jackets will be launched at WWDMAGIC’s next show in February.

Hailley Howard Photography | WWDMAGIC
Model & TV Personality Rachel McCord and WWDMAGIC Vice President Kelly Helfman posing for a Polaroid

Attendees of the festive brunch—featuring vegan entrées and cocktails from Plant Food + Wine Venice—included model and TV personality Rachel McCord, Days of Our Lives actor Sal Stowers, and actor and blogger Samantha Gutstadt, among others. The überstylish group broke vegan bread and discussed more ethical ways of consuming and considering fashion.

Hailley Howard Photography | WWDMAGIC 

“It is our job to educate the fashion community on their options, and what better way than to support and partner with Coalition LA to let the fashion industry know that they do have other options, like vegan leather and faux fur?” said WWDMAGIC Vice President Kelly Helfman.

PETA x Coalition LAHailley Howard Photography | WWDMAGIC
Ashley Frohnert (PETA Social Media Manager), Tori Alegria (Coalition LA Public Relations Manager), Darci Wong (Coalition LA Creative Director), Christina Sewell (PETA Manager, Fashion Campaigns), and Kelly Helfman (WWDMAGIC Vice President)

As the demand for cruelty-free fashion grows, Coalition LA hopes retailers across the nation will adopt a more mindful attitude when making purchases.

Cruelty-free materials have been essential to Coalition LA from the start, which made it a no-brainer for the womenswear wholesaler to partner with PETA. Earlier this year, the two compassionate entities launched the PETA x Coalition LA vegan leather jacket, which was met with immense enthusiasm from the fashion community.

PETA x Coalition LA Hailley Howard Photography | WWDMAGIC
Mia Mesa Aghili in a PETA x Coalition LA vegan leather jacket

“When PETA and our brand first discussed launching an outerwear collaboration, we both knew it had to start a conversation that would ignite the vegan fashion movement,” said Coalition LA Creative Director Darci Wong. “[I]t has been incredible to see it recognized and supported by WWDMAGIC.”

Be sure to look for the PETA x Coalition LA outerwear in February!

More than ever, trendy shoppers agree that no one should die for fashion. An immeasurable amount of suffering goes into every fur-trimmed jacket, leather belt, and wool sweater. Thankfully, ethical, fabulous, and innovative vegan fashion can be found all around the world. Need help looking great while saving animals? Check out PETA’s guide to wearing vegan today.

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