(1) Existing law prohibits any person from collecting blood from animals, or preparing, testing, processing, storing, or distributing blood or blood component products, as defined, from animals, for retail sale and distribution except in a commercial blood bank for animals that is licensed by the Secretary of Food and Agriculture. Existing law requires a commercial blood bank for animals, as a condition of licensing, to document how the animal donor was acquired and to have a written protocol for, among other things, ongoing veterinary care for animals held in blood donor facilities. Existing law authorizes the secretary to fix the license application fee and license renewal fee at less than, but not to exceed, $250 for each establishment. Existing law also authorizes the Department of Food and Agriculture to increase those fees to cover the department’s reasonable costs incurred in connection with required inspections. Existing law exempts all records held by the Department of Food and Agriculture department pursuant to these provisions from disclosure pursuant to the California Public Records Act.

This bill would modify the definition of a commercial blood bank for animals to limit the definition to establishments that collect blood from “community-sourced” animals, as defined, that are brought by their owners to the commercial blood bank for animals to have their blood collected. The bill would exclude from the definition of a commercial blood blank for animals establishments that collect blood from “captive closed-colony” animals that are kept, housed, or maintained for the purpose of collecting their blood. By modifying the definition of a commercial blood bank for animals in this manner, the bill would prohibit the use of captive closed-colony animals at a commercial blood bank for animals. The bill would make the modification of the definition of a commercial blood bank for animals operative 3 years after the date that the department determines that an equivalent supply of blood sold in California from captive closed-colony blood banks for animals during the years 2018 to 2019, inclusive, is being produced over an equivalent time period from community-sourced blood banks for animals. The bill would define “indirect supervision” to have the same meaning as in specified regulations and would make certain related changes.

The bill, for purposes of liability, would declare the production and use of whole blood, plasma, blood products, and blood derivatives for the purpose of injecting or transfusing the same, or any of them, into an animal to be construed to be, and would declare to be, the rendition of a service by each and every person, firm, or corporation participating, and would prohibit from being construed, and would be declared not to be, a sale of that whole blood or plasma or those blood products or blood derivatives. The bill would require a commercial blood bank for animals to include in its written protocol, which would be required to be consistent with current standards of care and practice for the field of veterinary transfusion medicine, bloodborne pathogen testing for all canine and feline blood donors, as specified.

The bill would prohibit a commercial blood bank for animals from providing payment to a person who brings a community-sourced animal to the commercial blood bank for the purpose of donating that animal’s blood or blood component products, would impose specified requirements on a commercial blood bank for animals that accepts a donation from a community-sourced animal, would require commercial blood banks for animals to annually submit a specified report to the department and, among other enforcement actions, would subject a commercial blood bank for animals to a civil penalty of $1,000 per violation of these provisions. The bill would delete the above-described exemption from the California Public Records Act, except for identifying personal information, as defined, of owners of animal donors, as provided.

(2) Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest.

This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.

(3) Under existing law, a violation of certain provisions of the Food and Agricultural Code relating to animals is a crime.

Because a violation of some of the above provisions would be a crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

(4) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.