Corporations are buying local vet clinics — raising questions about price, choice and quality of care ( www.cbc.ca )

The big companies, known as consolidators, have bought hundreds of clinics from 2012 onwards, according to records and reports, across the country, because pets and vets are big money.

Sixty per cent of Canadians have a pet, according to a recent report from Mintel, a consumer research firm, and the country's vet practices pull in around $9.3 billion a year according to a 2023 report prepared for the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association.

A 2023 report from the Ontario Veterinary Medical Association (OMVA) said corporate interests contol 20 per cent of veterinary hospitals in Canada, and estimates those chains employ about 40 per cent of the nation's vets.

LittleTarsier ,

Again, the Commons podcast did an episode on this. Highly recommend listening to the entire season on monopolies.

healthetank ,

I swear, how did we get to this point, where we have massive (effectively) monopolies that are able to continue to merge and buy up smaller companies and grow?

I know we have anti-trust laws, but if companies are able to keep doing this, we need a review of those laws.

DerisionConsulting ,

Because that's how capitalism works without strong enough regulations. You need to grow every year, and at a certain point you can't really do that without expanding into a new market or buying a competitor.

In exaggerated capitalism, one company grows until it owns everything. Its goal is to extract as much as possible from the population.

swordgeek ,

Never one company.

Usually three companies will end up owning an imdustry. It's far easier to manage a collusive oligopoly than a pure monopoly; and the governments are more likely to leave you alone.

Murdoc ,

No such thing as strong enough regulations. They'll alway find a way as long as there is motivation to do so.

Zorque ,

Because that's how capitalism works. The goal is to make as much money as possible as fast as possible, which is harder to do when you have competition.

The myth of the "free market" is a way to distract people from the reality of a capital based system. The haves all want to be have-mores, and they will take from the needs to accomplish it.

BCsven ,

Free market might work if politicians couldnoy accept any "donations" to adjust laws in favour of giant corps.

Murdoc ,

Nope. All you'd be doing is slowing down the damage in the short term while breeding more clever and less moral actors. The only way to get rid of that behaviour is to change the rules of the game.

FireRetardant ,

I doubt the laws were ever even intended to prevent this.

Shyfer ,

It's getting really cyberpunk all in here lol

Adverb ,

This happened in the US. The quality dropped, the prices skyrocketed, and the staff stopped caring.
They hid fees in prescriptions- $17 for 30 pills and $15 for 4 more because there's a $12 dispensing fee hidden in every prescription. It took them a year to finally explain it to me. They fired me as a client (after 20+ years) when I questioned them.
Find an independent clinic and support them!

LittleTarsier ,

Except in a lot of places there's no option to switch to an independent clinic. In my area, you're lucky to even have a vet in the first place. With the exception of one clinic that only deals with cats and another clinic with a questionable vet, all other clinics in my city are owned by the same company!

corsicanguppy ,

Can confirm that maintaining vet and support staff in vet hospitals is a serious challenge; horrifically driven by suicide as anything else.

Unfortunately the corps have seen how it's completely unregulated for price and, like dentists were, open to arbitrary prices bounded only by what people can afford for essential service.

It was only natural they'd snap up all the vets toward price fixing.

Beaver ,
@Beaver@lemmy.ca avatar

That is so immoral

ChicoSuave ,

My friend was desperate for work and found a job with a veterinarian. The job was a vet tech but the work was euthanizing dogs and puppies for the county. He quit after a few months and has never been the same.

Now imagine it's a big, faceless Corp that wants the government contracts for humane services. A worker will be forced to agree with how the company does business while the corporate bean counters look for ways to save money on euthanasia. Gas chambers will be manned by broken wage slaves who are only employed because they are detached from their emotions.

autotldr Bot ,

This is the best summary I could come up with:

He's lucky he could take it over because, for more than a decade, large and often international companies have been snapping up local clinics here and around the world, a trend that intensified in Canada a few years before the pandemic.

In the Halifax area, for example, where Redgrave practises, CBC News checked out the 55 local clinics, finding 23 of them (42 per cent) are corporate-owned.

An Angus Reid survey found 60 per cent of consumers who took their pet to the vet for a routine checkup in 2022 said they felt they were charged too much.

In a Calgary dog park, Laurie Peterson told CBC News she's on a budget but does her best "to pick independent" and has a vet she feels is affordable.

"I don't believe consolidation is making pet care more expensive," he said, pointing to inflation, rising rents and higher salaries as clinics compete for vets and staff as key issues.

In a statement, the VetStrategy chain said all its veterinarians and technicians have "clinical freedom to recommend and provide care that is best suited to both an animal's medical needs and an owner's financial position."

The original article contains 961 words, the summary contains 183 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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