Attitudes of dog owners in Edinburgh towards canine blood donation

The establishment of animal blood banks following legislative changes in the UK in 2005 has led to increasing accessibility and use of animal blood products. However, the supply of animal blood is currently not meeting demand. This study aims to identify potential methods of increasing donor recruitment to meet this demand. A questionnaire was constructed, consisting of three sections designed to evaluate owner perceptions, identify incentives for donation and to obtain demographic data. Seventy-nine responses were included, 76 of which were previous non-donors. The top three reasons for not donating in this group were uncertainty over where to donate, veterinarians not expressing the need for donors and lack of awareness. Considering these results, one method of potentially increasing donor recruitment is encouraging more veterinarians to actively advertise local donor programmes. Emphasising the mandatory inclusion of a free annual health check in the donor process may also be helpful as many respondents rated this highly. It is the authors' hope that this preliminary data may lead to increased willingness of owners to nominate their dogs for donation by guiding the provision of appropriate incentives and education to quell owner concerns as highlighted by this study.