High levels of cholesterol in the blood are not healthy in either humans or dogs. because a diet rich in saturated fats raises the cholesterol level, it is plausible that dogs owned as pets have higher cholesterol levels than dogs owned by a veterinary research clinic. "normal" levels of cholesterol based on the clinic's dogs would then be misleading. a clinic compared healthy dogs it owned with healthy pets brought to the clinic to be neutered. here are the summary statistics for blood cholesterol levels (milligrams per deciliter of blood)