Owning a pet in New York City requires a particular kind of… resourcefulness.

You learn which subway stations have elevators, which landlords will overlook an 85-pound dog (or believe you when you PROMISE they’re only 40 pounds) and which neighborhood restaurants will furnish a table-side water bowl. You develop strong opinions about dog runs, groomers and whether a walk across three avenues qualifies as “nearby.”

But one of the most consequential parts of pet ownership remains surprisingly difficult to research: How much will veterinary care cost, and are there ways to truly “hack” the “system?”

A clinic may tell you the price of an exam over the phone. It may not. The cost of a dental cleaning, neuter procedure or diagnostic test might be available only after a consultation. An estimate can arrive after you’ve already taken time off work, carried a cat onto the subway or, maybe worst of all, used your last dose of trazodone for the outing.

Comparing options is even harder. There is no standard place to see what clinics charge, who owns them or how their prices compare with others nearby.

That is the problem Vetted is being built to address.

Vetted is a transparency platform and publication focused on the practical realities of owning a pet in New York City — namely the cost, accessibility and business of veterinary care.

The goal is not to identify the single “best” veterinarian in the city, but to give pet owners more of the information they need to make their own decisions.

Veterinary medicine has advanced dramatically. Pets can now receive sophisticated imaging, cancer treatments, joint injections, specialty surgeries and chronic disease care that would have been unavailable to previous generations.

Obviously, those advances cost money. So do trained staff, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, rent and the general expense of running a clinic in New York City. For my day job, I cover the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare writ large, especially as it relates to cost and affordability. Now, I want to look at the cost of care through the veterinary lens.

A 2025 Gallup study conducted with PetSmart Charities found that 52% of U.S. pet owners had skipped needed veterinary care or declined a veterinarian’s recommendation during the previous year. Among those owners, 71% cited cost as a reason.

The problem crosses income levels. Even among households earning at least $90,000, roughly one-third of owners who skipped or declined care reported that they could not afford it, according to that Gallup poll.

Veterinarians are seeing the same pressure. In a separate survey published in January 2026, 94% of companion-animal veterinarians said clients’ finances sometimes or often prevented them frm providing recommended treatment.

Meanwhile, visits to veterinary practices fell by roughly 3% nationally in 2025, even as practice revenue increased by about 2.5%, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association. In other words, pet owners are going to the vet less frequently, but spending more when they do.

Be warned: Those figures are national. In New York City, the problem is layered onto already-high housing, transportation and everyday living costs. Needless to say, a $100 difference between clinics can make a big difference. So can knowing whether a routine procedure is likely to cost hundreds of dollars or several thousand before booking an appointment.

The veterinary business is also changing.

As I build the Vetted proprietary pricing database, I’m looking beyond clinic names, addresses and reviews. Some practices that appeared to be independent neighborhood businesses were part of much larger veterinary groups. That ownership was not always obvious from the clinic’s branding or website.

This is part of a broader national shift. Brakke Consulting has estimated that corporations own about 25% of general veterinary practices and 75% of specialty practices. Corporate groups were estimated to control almost half of the veterinary-care market as of 2021, according to figures cited by the American Animal Hospital Association.

Corporate ownership is not automatically evidence of bad care. Large groups may offer better benefits to employees, invest in equipment and provide access to specialists. Independent ownership does not guarantee low prices or a good patient experience.

But ownership matters, particularly when pet owners are trying to understand why prices, policies or staffing have changed.

Private-equity activity in veterinary medicine has become significant enough to draw federal scrutiny. In 2022, the Federal Trade Commission imposed divestiture and future-notification requirements on JAB Consumer Partners as part of its $1.65 billion acquisition of Ethos Veterinary Health’s parent company. The FTC described the deal as part of a growing trend of consolidation in emergency and specialty veterinary markets.

Pet owners deserve to know when the neighborhood clinic they chose years ago has been acquired, who now controls it and whether that company owns other options nearby.

Vetted will combine reported journalism with practical tools for NYC pet owners.

That will include pricing information for common services such as exams, vaccinations, dental care, spay and neuter procedures and emergency visits. It will include guides to comparing estimates, understanding veterinary invoices and asking about lower-cost treatment options without feeling as though you are compromising your pet’s care.

Vetted will also report on who owns New York City clinics, how veterinary businesses are changing and what consolidation means for consumers and veterinary workers.

Over time, the platform will build a more comprehensive NYC Vet Cost Index, using clinic-provided prices, direct reporting and anonymized invoices submitted by pet owners. Individual bills will never tell the entire story. Of course, a procedure’s cost can vary based on an animal’s size, age, medical history and complications. But aggregated information can give owners a realistic range and reveal where meaningful differences exist.

The publication will also cover the less dramatic but equally useful parts of city pet ownership: insurance, medications, emergency planning, transportation, boarding, preventive care and the small logistical decisions that can become expensive ones.

PLEASE NOTE! This is not a campaign against veterinarians. Many veterinary professionals are working inside the same strained system, dealing with staff shortages, rising supply costs, distressed clients and the emotional consequences of seeing care declined.

It is also not a directory that will simply rank clinics from cheapest to most expensive. Price is important, but it is not the only measure of value. A good resource should help people understand what they are paying for, not assume the lowest number is always the right answer.

Vetted is based on a more straightforward idea: Pet owners make better decisions when they have better information.

New Yorkers already compare rents, restaurant prices, hospital bills and nearly every product they buy online. Veterinary care should not become less transparent simply because the decisions surrounding it are emotional.

We love our pets. Anyone who knows me would likely agree that I spend too much time thinking about the health and happiness of my own dog, Wilson, so this is my effort to spread some of the love with all of you.

Welcome to Vetted.