Over 60% of all Canadian households include a pet and we have spent over $8 billion dollars on them annually since 2017. The pet industry is big business in Canada, and because we love our pets so much between the late 90’s and 2010, Canadian expenditure in the industry jumped a whopping 122%. We paid more for our beloved pets wellbeing than our own interests and hobbies.

Of Canadians surveyed - most consider their pets part of the family, and in some cases, their only family. Animals provide us and many vulnerable populations such as seniors and people with disabilities with an important source of mental and emotional support. With mental health emerging as one of major importance in today’s world, animals and the therapy they provide by just being themselves is vital.

As Canadians, we are polite, complacent and try not to ask for too much. We are also accustomed to paying much more for daily necessities and consumer products because “our country is so big and our population so small” - which has left us ripe for manipulation by unscrupulous organizations.

We pay more and yet have less options in many areas of our democratic and convenient westernized markets...in fact, our nation pays more for consumer goods than our Aussie, American and British counterparts, especially in the area of veterinary medical fees.

So when faced with difficult decisions in the much needed medical care of our four-legged loved ones, we are faced with tough decisions like spending hundreds or thousands of dollars to cover vital and emergency and preventative needs of our pets.

At its worst, these exorbitant prices serve as a secondary source of animal cruelty and at it's least- a source of economic discrimination.

Keeping things realistic - most veterinarians don’t get into veterinary medicine for the love of money and are truly compassionate human beings. This issue is a much larger systemic problem from the top-down and unfortunately when most vets are faced with pressure to tow the corporate line or keep their name in good standing in the veterinary medecine field - many are faced with a moral dilemma.

The largest of organizations is the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). Their reluctance lobby the government and fulfill their most basic of mandates - animal welfare and secondly, look out for the wellbeing of their human counterparts and instead focus on profiteering with no signs of legislative oversight.

Treating veterinary medicine as a profit-driven business is the crux of the entire dilemma, CVMA should instead be fostering a healthy community and advocating the important relationship between pets and their humans.

Citizens have a right to a healthy family pet and be supported by the CVMA and not in-spite of it. Everyone deserves that type of special bond in their lifetime and not potentially forced into agonizing heart-wrenching economically-driven decisions.

Solutions proposed:

- CVMA to lobby government for fee and service regulations at federal and/or provincial branches, with a cap on “excessive” pricing.

- Since clinics are regarded as small businesses; allow individual veterinary clinics to advertise and market their fees and services for the public to base educated decision making and awareness (allowing the principles of a free market to exist such as competition; if we are in fact referring to veterinary medicine as a profit-based corporate entity).

- Cap exorbitant pricing practices for essential preventative healthcare such: lab work and blood testing, diagnostic imaging, dental cleaning and all surgeries.

- Regulate dishonest and price gouging practices of both Cdn Pet Insurance companies and and Animal health Pharmaceuticals.