Our Story

We only became aware of the rapid private equity takeover of veterinary practices after things went terribly wrong after taking our beloved 2 year old dachshund to our local vet, Berkeley Dog & Cat. The once storied local practice had been taken over by PetVet Care Ceners (owned by KKR) just two years prior and many aspects of our experience reflected the worst elements private equity ownership. Our dog paid the ultimate price and after the experience we went through and being stone-walled by the corporate owners, we decided to start this site to share our story and build on the increasing attention to the effects of private equity and corporate ownership of veterinary practices.

Our dog, Pluto, had been side-swiped by a car and was immediately taken to this practice. Over the subsequent two days the severity of his condition and opportunity to remedy it was missed - he was provided only supportive care by a string of relief vets who provided zero continuity of care who often had conflicting opinions and offered no oversight of care. The services the practice reported to offer (as a 24/7 emergency hospital) including surgical care and advanced imaging were not available. The medical director listed on their website no longer worked there, and no recommendation was made to transfer him to another facility that offered these services and could have saved his life. Instead he bled out internally and eventually suffered a cardiac arrest and died a traumatic death in the middle of the night. The practice continued to request authorization for payment at every opportunity including in the moments after he had passed away in the middle of the night and the following day before they would release his body to be taken for an autopsy. Our bill came to over $13,000, all for the limited care that denied him the opportunity to live. An autopsy later showed that he died of massive thoractic internal bleeding.

We contacted the practice and PetVet Care Centers and were initially stonewalled. We learned that as pets are treated as personal property, libability is usually limited what it cost to buy the dog which is vastly different to human healthcare, yet the prices charged for care are similar if not more than for humans. After writing to members of the board of the company we received an email with no apology and only an offer of a refund of what we paid if we would sign a non-disclosure agreement that would stop us from sharing anything about our experience and prevent us from initiating any actions against them.

From here the path was clear, that Pluto’s legacy would be to draw attention to this growing trend of private equity ownership of veterinary practices and to push for greater regulatory oversight to protect vulnterable animals and their owners.