These Animals Were Bred to Be Living Blood Bags

TVBB kept dogs in small, barren, deafeningly loud kennels for more than 23 hours a day. Staff only let dogs outside into concrete “play yards” while they cleaned.

On Sundays, when nobody was scheduled to clean, the dogs didn’t go outside at all. Many dogs had pressure sores and growths from being forced to lie on hard, grated plastic floors, most with no bedding or even a resting platform—day after day, many of them for years.

The facility crowded as many as 30 cats in pens that lacked adequate hiding places and enrichment—just a cardboard box, some milk crates, and a few ping-pong balls here and there. Staff forced cats to compete for access to food, water, perches, and plastic kiddie pools of litter, which weren’t scooped on weekends.

With nothing to do and no relief from chronic frustration and loneliness, cats climbed the walls and dogs barked continuously.

The stressful conditions led some dogs to fight. Howard’s kennelmate attacked him at least three times before the two dogs were finally separated. After Clara and Parker fought, staff still let them out together. They fought twice more, resulting in a wound to Clara’s leg that required staples.

After an apparent fight with her kennelmate, Isabella developed cellulitis—a deep infection of the skin and underlying tissue—causing a massive wound that still hadn’t healed seven weeks later. Another dog, Joey, suffered from a similar wound to his foot. About 12 weeks later, workers found that his leg was broken. Bobo sustained an ear injury in an apparent fight, and he subsequently lost weight, but his blood was still drawn for sale.