Pleasing 4 Pets

The PBBuk or Pet Blood Bank UK has received its 1,000th donation of blood. The non-profit national canine blood donation charity opened its doors after its launch in March of 2007 at the annual Crufts show.

The charity was started after a change in the law enabled UK veterinary surgeries to store blood reserved for domestic dogs.

The national canine blood donation service now conducts frequent blood donation assemblies, akin to the human blood donation services.

The canine blood collected at the sessions makes it possible for vets across the country to save the lives of many sick or injured dogs that might otherwise not have lived without a blood transfusion.

PBBuk’s Director, Wendy Barnett said of the scheme: -

“We are absolutely delighted to have reached this important milestone and it just shows how far we have come since we launched just over 18 months ago.

The fact that we are at donor 1000 now is testament to the generosity of dog owners all over the country who bring their dogs to donate at local blood collection sessions and of course the veterinary practices who kindly provide the premises for these sessions to take place.

Without these owners, we wouldn’t be able to supply the veterinary profession with the blood products they need to save the lives of hundreds of dogs in the UK.”

The canine blood is separated into a range of blood products and stockpiled at the PBBuk labs in Leicester. The blood products are then sold on to veterinary surgeries in the UK as required. PBBuk has confirmed that it expects to launch a similar scheme for cats shortly.