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Donating blood is one of those things you should do, but don't. Because you know, it's creepy and there are needles. But now there's a workaround. Because if you can’t bring yourself to face the needle, consider donating your pet instead!Most of us probably don’t realise that pet blood donation is a thing. In fact, the demand for cat and dog blood is rising. Speaking to the ABC, emergency and critical care veterinarian Claire Sharp explained the increasing demand as being a result of our evolving relationship with our pets. As we’ve started to treat our animals like family members, we’ve also increased the medical care the average pet receives. This means the demand for blood to be used during transfusions, surgeries, and emergencies has skyrocketed.Despite the rise in demand, there are only a couple of pet blood banks in the country: at Murdoch University Animal Hospital and Melbourne university’s U-Vet clinic.If you want to take your dog or cat in to donate, here is what you need to know. Firstly, the animal must be healthy and happy—they’re not going to just bleed a distressed pet. Also, considering dogs donate as much blood as humans (so weird), only large dogs over 25 kgs can take part. Dogs are awake while donating, but cats are sedated—because fuck doing that to an awake cat. Cats also only need to be over 4 kgs to help out, seeing as they only give 40 to 55 millilitres at a time. Cat blood is also in shorter supply than dog blood. So if you have a very chill, robust cat, consider volunteering them.What are you doing here? Go bleed your pet!
