Tom Porter-Brown, Birmingham central Socialist Party
Since 2015, the cost of veterinary services has increased by 50%! The veterinary market is worth at least £2 billion, over £5 billion if you include other pet-related services. And while a few make a profit, pet owners are facing the consequences of higher prices.
This profit-first approach has caused pets and animals across the UK to go without the medical help they need. So much so that even the government’s own tame Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating whether pet owners are being overcharged for medicines, and may even recommend the government institutes a maximum prescription charge.
But with an estimated 16 million households owning at least one pet, an alternative that is high-quality and affordable cannot exist without nationalising the corporations dominating the market. Six firms dominate the veterinary market, hiding behind different names of the practices they have bought up.
It is cruel that pets be left to suffer because their owners cannot afford to treat them to adequate healthcare. The situation cannot permanently improve without changing how these multi-billion-pound companies are run. These firms need to be brought into public ownership where the wealth generated can be invested back into veterinary services.
We also need to nationalise the pet food companies, the large shop chains and the pharmaceutical industry, under democratic workers’ control and management. This could be used to make medicines affordable and to pay vets better. The resources required to run a socialist veterinary system should be controlled by people who understand what it’s like to both work and depend on such a system.
