Newcastle's Animal Referral and Emergency Centre is appealing to Hunter pet owners to register their pets to become blood donors.
Both the Broadmeadow and East Maitland branches are looking to update their database of pets who are able to donate in emergencies.
Many patients require emergency blood transfusions as a result of trauma such as car accidents, rat bait toxicity, or any number of diseases.
With spring and summer approaching, outdoor activities with pets will be increasing, causing a rise in animal emergencies as well.
Managing Director of NAREC David Tabrett says pets must be of a certain size and age to donate and more information can be found on the AREC VET website.
"Blood transfusions are a very important part of the work we do for critically ill patients, however it is a fairly sparse resource that we can access and we rely on pet owners to make their pets available for blood collection."
Canine blood can only be stored for a short period of time, however feline blood on the other hand cannot be stored at all and therefore a database is needed to call upon in times of need.
