By Logan Langlois
Have your routine expenses at the vet felt higher lately? Many attribute this increase to
general inflation, the fluctuating modern economy, or the general rise in the cost of health care across America. Though these things play a factor in the rise of prices everywhere, Dr. Catrina Herd, owner and operator of veterinary clinic Animal House located in Antioch, says a big contributor is the quiet purchasing of private practices by large corporations.
Herd graduated from the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine in 2007,
working with Williamson County for three years upon graduation to establish its first vet shelter.
She was then employed by Animal House, until buying the establishment in 2011. Herd said that in 2020 she did a lot of research into why many of her fellow veterinarians were selling to corporations and eventually decided to sell as well, as it would give her employees better pay, equipment, and benefits.
However, Herd said after a year of negotiating with Southern Veterinary Partners, a
subsidiary of Shore Capital, the corporation canceled the deal two days before the buyout date.
Herd said the deal fell through after Southern Veterinary Partners onboarded all her employees with benefits and raises she couldn’t match, forcing her to close Animal House for six months to recover.
“I have a little bit of a, I think, biased opinion about corporates because of that,” Herd said.
Herd said oftentimes when private practices are bought out the name, face, and as many
employees as possible are maintained, leaving the transition to go largely unnoticed by the public. Herd said in addition to feeling private practices aren’t given much room to grow, she has heard of $50,000 sign-on bonuses for practices to go corporate.
“Now that’s an awful lot of money to turn down, but once you take it, you’re stuck,” Herd
said. “You’re signing a … 15-mile non-compete.”
Herd said if she, for example, signs such a deal and decides to quit later, she would be forced to open again in a rural area, effectively ending her career.
Herd said that the accessibility of animal care diminished significantly after COVID, partly
because most of the population was staying home and far more animals began circulating in the population. She said this provided far more pets to take care of which was good for business, but it also put a physical and emotional tax on herself and her staff.
“We could have never predicted that in a million years,” Herd said. “But what happened for
veterinarians, is that we went from worrying about pets coming through our door to saying ‘Oh no, we can’t take any more pets through our door.’”
Herd said it was during this time vet care saw much of its rise in price under corporate
practices, allowing corporate operators to make more money while also cutting down on the
overwhelming demand throughout unaffordability. Herd said the way her practice has been able to keep costs low is by limiting office aesthetics so as not to pass the cost of superficial
pleasantries on to the client, as well as seeing more clients.
“We typically have to see three to four times the clients, to be affordable, then the bougie
practices see,” Herd said.
Herd said she would love to see a study done to see how many of Nashville’s veterinary
clinics are privately owned, though she suspects must have been corporatized. She concluded by saying there are times she’s not even sure Animal House can keep up despite its 30% profit margin. Until then, Herd said she’s taking one day at a time.
