Who among us pet owners hasn’t nearly screamed in shock and horror when seeing a veterinary bill lately? You’re not imagining it — the cost of veterinary services has gone up in recent years . And one big reason behind the soaring prices is the often-demonized private equity industry. But fear not — Senator Elizabeth Warren is on it.
Last week the senator from Massachusetts and her Connecticut counterpart, Senator Richard Blumenthal, sent a stern letter to JAB Holding Co., a German private equity conglomerate, that raised concerns about its role, and impact, in the rapid consolidation of veterinary care practices in the United States. “In recent years, private equity firms — including JAB Holding Company — have spent billions on buying up veterinary practices and then profiteering while reducing quality of care, increasing prices for pet owners, and making working conditions even harder for veterinarians,” the senators wrote .
“[C]orporate consolidation of veterinary care and an accompanying rise in prices represents a major issue for American consumers and a life and death issue for their pets.” Their action is a much-needed first step to increase oversight of private equity, an industry that typically operates with little transparency, and its relatively new incursion in the veterinary care sector, a fragmented space where small and independent practices are the norm. Advertisement That’s been changing.
Roughly 30 percent of veterinary clinics in the U.