We truly live in a dystopian world.
Most peoples only option for pet care, is the same company that makes M&M’s.
NVA (national veterinary associates) is another firm that gobbles up private practices. I worked in their IT department as support for a few years. Spoke to dozens of veterinary offices daily throughout the continental US and AK.
It seemed corporate’s interest was to keep things running with little expenditures.
Then they started to focus on new acquisitions. They were bringing in so many new offices there was a backlog getting their IT systems joined into the corporate network with proper backups.
Then there was the hack (2019). Affected offices had their databases encrypted so they were unable to access any pets records. Here is an article about it - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2019/11/ransomware-bites-400-veterinary-hospitals/
I left days after that occurred. Couldn’t take actively lying to offices saying their records would be available soon knowing the records would take at least a week to recover. The newly acquired offices lost everything. Offices told me pets would die.
That really sucks! People are used unknowingly to achieve evil for ultra wealthy. We suffer while they laugh and buy our hopes and dreams.
I have 2 veterinarians in the family and both sold their practices to private investors. These private companies are buying up pet services as it’s one of the last places people pay medical bills without insurance. Pet insurance is also skyrocketing in popularity.
Hedge funds took our pets and created a lucrative industry exploiting our human need to care for others. Monetizing love is the most evil thing I can imagine and it is now a multi-billion dollar market.
They’re pushing prices up because of course people are gonna pay for the sake of a beloved pet. The cost?
Dead pets for the people who can’t afford it.
Last night I watched people of all backgrounds fork out $1600 between 3 people.
At a shelter, I watched a grown man breakdown of a $20 bill for a pit the size of a house.
We are so fucked as humans.
They also own Banfield. Talk about dystopian.
20 years ago, we had local vets. Now, your pet has almost no option. They charge you $800 and give you a Mars bar.
Tbf, I’ve only good things to say about the people working at the VCA we take our pets to. I’m sure there’s evil higher up in the corporation, because it’s a superstructure that parasitizes the local offices and exploits the veterinarians and their helpers. Sort of like " health insurance" companies, nothing of value is added. But the hands-on people have only shown great care for animals.
Sometimes I think the way to sell universal healthcare would be to include pets. Although you’d never convince Kristi Noem.
As individuals, most ae great. Every job has the dumbass or mystery hire. As a whole, they ae garbage.
The VCA is one big ad for Mars inc products. Subscription plans for anti parasitic drugs, ads running as " Vet educating the public", and their products wall to wall.
I fucking hate both of them. They’re complete scammers
VCA is the walmart/amazon/google, etc of the veterinary world. My **** told me they had to do battle with them in *****. Fortunately for them, they were sitting on valuable real estate and were very popular with their neighbors. My ****'s husband wasn’t as fortunate in *****. VCA forced him out of business.
(Names edited to protect the innocent.)
I didn’t learn about it until I was in their emergency room. Our corporate system is nothing but shadows. Seems like we should be better educated.
When I can, I just try to find a real neighborhood joint, for whatever it is, try to support our fellow human beings
I mean, I’m not trying to argue the dystopian part, though I do wonder why this specifically is what makes you think it is dystopian.
Mars has been making pet foods for over thirty years. Branching into pet care isn’t a huge stretch.
And like… I like both chocolate candies and pets. If I started a company that made both chocolates and cared for pets, why is that aspect dystopian?
It’s dystopian because they have a monopoly on pet care and prices are going through the roof. Private equity is basically taking advantage of pet owners because they know you will pay any price to save your animal.
Private equity owns 50% of vets and 75% of emergency clinics across America
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po6muzvQgEk
This is very correct. Zero options in many areas. Most people see animals as actual family.
20 Years ago, people would have laughed at you getting pet insurance. 30 years ago, they would ask why are you worried.
We are now seeing the samething in healthcare. Most places will lose their only independent hospitals with the defunding of medicare and medicaid.
Right, I agree that monopolies and consolidation are bad, I suppose that’s just not the emphasis I read in the OP.
Stephen Dubner did an excellent deep dive on the topic if you’re interested in a long-form intro: https://freakonomics.com/podcast/should-you-trust-private-equity-to-take-care-of-your-dog/
But to TLDR, consolidation like what VCA has been doing generally means less autonomy for workers, higher prices for customers, and worse clinical outcomes.
I don’t disagree that consolidation is bad for consumers.
General Mills has made food for a long time, but if they wanted to open a hospital and do surgery on me, I think that would indeed be a huge stretch.
That’s not quite the same as what I said but okay.
“Mars has been making pet foods for over thirty years. Branching into pet care isn’t a huge stretch.”
I made a matching comparison to human food and human medical care. To my reading, it’s exactly the same, and I don’t understand your reply now. But I admit I’m curious to the distinction you’re seeing, if you’re willing to elaborate.
How many human doctors are involved in the making of Old El Paso taco shells?
Now, conversely, how many veterinarians are involved in the designing and creation of one-size-fits-all food that is one-food-for-all-meals? Mars was already employing tons of vets to ensure their food would be both safe and have all the ingredients in a digestible form.
While I’m sure General Mills does employ human doctors to check for safety, they aren’t trying to create a one-food-for-all-meals solution.
Chocolate kills dogs, for starters.
Well they’re not giving the chocolate to dogs.
I am lucky enough to have a local vet that is excellent and caring and independently owned. When the owner wanted to retire a few years ago, several of the veterinarians pooled together to purchase it, so it wasn’t bought by a big company. My cat died earlier this year, but I will continue to donate to them even though I don’t have a pet right now.
All that being said, I’ve known two people who’ve worked at the VCA, and both are excellent. One (a vet tech) is still there and loves it and her manager is great, but the other left because she was overworked and underpaid (an actual veterinarian). In an ideal world, huge conglomerates wouldn’t buy out and jack up the prices of independent vets and then cut costs by stressing staff, but that doesn’t mean that the people working there aren’t caring and dedicated. Depends a lot on the specific location.
People at VCA are doing their best, I personally know this to be true. But the dystopian corporate bullshit they have to deal with is epic. These people are worse off for VCA being their boss, I promise you.
Instead we should have this money in adoption run by local governments. Laws shutting down puppy mills (for profit pregnancies).
Different vein, maybe we should stop having one company everything.
Does chocolate contain cat parts?
That is why it kills dogs. Then they grind them up to make the food and sponsor pure breeding.
I very well may live in a bubble, but this is actually the first time I’ve heard of them, are they really that widespread?
I can think of about a half-dozen independent veterinarians off the top of my head within maybe about 20 minutes of me
We do have a handful of Banfield and Blue Pearl locations around, which now that I’m looking into it also seem to be owned by Mars, which is wild
But even still, they’re still dwarfed by the number of independent vets.
Are you sure they’re independent? A lot of these chains (Thrive, Lakefield, etc) have gotten clever and let the hospitals keep their historic name after purchase. These private equity groups own every hospital but 2 or 3 in my immediate area.
I don’t know every chain off the top of my head to double check, but I assume that those two and the 3 I mentioned are probably more-or-less the top 5
And using the locators on their websites, I can find 1 VCA-affiliated vet, and a handful of Banfield (mostly out of PetSmart) and blue Pearl locations operating under their own names. Nothing else came up around me
I suppose it’s possible some of them may be part of some smaller chains, and I’m not going to comb through every last vet in my area, but a cursory glance at a handful of them that I’ve used doesn’t look like any of them are affiliated with any kind of chain.
