Generation claim as campaign over corporates endures

An “entire generation” has been left without experience of traditional veterinary care because of the growth in corporate practice ownership, according to a cat charity.

The claim emerged as CatsMatter, which wants the law governing the treatment of cats following road collisions to be changed, urged Welsh parliamentarians to launch their own inquiry into the sector.

Members of the Senedd’s petitions committee agreed to “keep a watching brief” on the issue during the 14 October session, while the current Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) process continues.

‘Paradigm shift’

But in its submission to that meeting, CatsMatter said the growth of corporate ownership represented a “significant paradigm shift in the veterinary industry, where financial interests often supersede health considerations”.

The group claimed it was aware of cases where cats with “simple cuts and bruises” following a crash had been euthanised because owners could not afford to pay for treatment.

It added: “Issues have now been going on so long that we have an entire generation who no longer know the traditional, animal centric veterinary practice that the older generations remember so fondly.”

Challenge

Suggestions that pet owners are now being charged too much for veterinary services have been repeatedly challenged from within the sector, amid fears of even higher costs and welfare harms potentially arising from reforms, plus an argument that clinicians had historically underestimated the value of their work.

Although it declined to respond to CatsMatter’s claims, the BVA recently pledged to mount a new communications campaign to highlight the full extent of clinicians’ care for the animals that are brought into their practices.

The group, among others, has also been highly critical of how the sector has been depicted in connection with the review, with new president Elizabeth Mullineaux describing some media coverage as being “at odds with everything I understand and value about the profession” during her first speech in the role last month.

Wider review

But calls for an inquiry into what petitioners allege is the “corporate takeover” of the Welsh veterinary sector pre-date the launch of the CMA’s wider review of companion animal services in September last year.

In a letter, also published ahead of the latest committee meeting, the CMA said it had followed the committee’s work “with interest” and would take their evidence into account during its own deliberations.

But law academics David Reader and Scott Summers, who are currently conducting their own research into the sector, argued that while they could be addressed, the CMA’s current approach had not clarified how regional variations and the specific challenges faced by vulnerable consumers might be tackled.

‘Granular effects’

They wrote: “This, we feel, accentuates the importance of the petition before the committee, which lays the foundations for a deeper dive into the granular effects of market concentration and corporate ownership in this context.”

Independent committee member Rhys ab Owen also backed calls for the petition to remain open, telling colleagues: “It’s certainly worth us waiting to see what the CMA says.”

Conservative MS Peter Fox added: “I don’t know what the answer is, but a veterinary service needs to be accessible to everybody or in a way that they can genuinely afford.

“I don’t think it’s something we can close because it’s a very real situation for many people.”

Although there have been calls for the issue to be referred to the Senedd’s economy, trade and rural affairs committee, the meeting was told that body could not yet consider it due to its present workload.