The Tucker Carlson Show
The Private Equity Veterinary Scam Making You Poorer and Killing Your Pets
29 Dec 2025
Chapter 1: Why is veterinary care so expensive?
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Chapter 2: How are private equity firms impacting veterinary practices?
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Chapter 3: What role does the AVMA play in veterinary care costs?
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Chapter 4: How is the veterinarian shortage affecting pet care?
Use the code TUCKER10 at checkout for 10% off Franklin and Colonial safes featuring the ProFlex interior that you customize. You're going to dig it. We definitely, plus they're good looking, I will say. Joe, thank you for doing this. I don't think I've ever probably have. I don't remember. I don't think I've ever interviewed an advertiser.
And so I just want to be clear about why I'm doing this interview. So I called you several months ago to ask you if you want to advertise on our show because you have a pet related company. I love dogs. I've got a dog right there. And we had this conversation that was like so unbelievably interesting. So interesting that I haven't stopped thinking about it.
So that's, I just want to be fully transparent about why I asked you to come. Thank you for doing it. So here's my real question. veterinary care, anyone who owns a dog or cat knows a lot about it. There's no backstop. There's no health insurance, whatever. And you'll pay anything because it's your pet. Right. It's a member of your family and it's getting really, really expensive.
So can you just give us the overview? Why is it so expensive to say, bring your dog in for his shots? Like how does this system work?
Yep. Just to put a pin in that, veterinary care has grown 2x the rate of inflation. So we talk about inflation. The cost of? Yeah. So the inflation is already high. Yeah. Veterinary inflation is double. It's like 2x. That's how crazy it is. So something that was $50 is literally $100 a year later.
Why?
Why? There's a number of factors. One, there's been a lot of private equity consolidation in this space.
I could have guessed that.
Follow the money. So, you know, that just means less supply and the demand's only growing.
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Chapter 5: What are the consequences of private equity in veterinary care?
That's one big factor. The other factor is because it's a cash pay industry, there's really no insurance. Veterinarians, and you'll read this in trade magazines,
they build their business on production which is basically selling you more stuff yes so a third of their revenue is dependent on you getting a blood exam getting x-ray etc and i think to be clear like the rank and file veterinarians are doing this only because they love pets i think what's happening is it's the few business owners and ultimately like i said private equity
that are simply raising prices for something that you're going to pay for no matter what.
Yes.
And it's scaring people. So at Dutch, my company, 50% of our customers say they haven't been to a vet in three years or more. Oh, I bet that's right. People are scared that the moment they enter a vet's office, they have a $500 bill or more.
Literally. So let's just back up and go through these one by one. So the first is private equity. What... So private equity buys the model in general, buys small businesses, independent businesses, links them together for efficiencies, for cost savings, right? This is the idea. This is what they tell you. So how many, do you have any sense of how many vets are owned by private equity now?
I think it's like almost, it's like a third to a half probably. Wow. Okay, so they've been scooping them up. Oh, massively. In fact, there's like two major companies that are doing it that there was a lawsuit that they're creating a monopoly that was going around.
So they'll go to owners of... Of brick and mortar, mom and pop shops. Yeah, mom and pops. And they're doing this with dentists as well and HVAC and basically every small business in America. And they'll buy just a whole bunch of them. Exactly, yeah. And then become regional.
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Chapter 6: How does telemedicine change veterinary care?
Yep. And then they'll just raise the prices. Does the care get better? No, the care gets worse because you're no longer bringing the, they're doing nothing. I don't want to like say nothing, but there's really no like modernization of equipment or faster care. It's the same thing. They just literally raise the price.
Huh.
It sucks.
It's super unfair. I know. Well, I mean, I'm willing to believe there are examples of private equity doing what it says it does, which is to come in and make the business better, better for its customers, better for its owners, better for its employees. I've never seen that ever in any sector, but I believe there must be some time where that happened.
My old veterinarian, I switched to and I asked for my medical records. It was 50 pages of PDF with scribble notes. I mean, there's no way that there's anything that you could ever find what's there. So I don't believe, I've not seen any sort of better care for pets as a result at all.
Yeah. But greater returns for the investors and for the... Yep. Totally. So, okay. So how do they, can you be specific about how they raise the prices? You suggested there's an incentive for veterinary offices to hike the price of annual exams and shots?
But they'll sell you more stuff too. So they'll say, you know what, your dog needs teeth cleaning. And so we need to put him under anesthesia. And that's going to be like a $5,000 bill for teeth cleaning. $5,000?
Yes. I've had a lot of dogs, dozens and dozens of dogs.
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Chapter 7: What legislative changes are needed for better veterinary access?
I've got five at my house right now. And I don't think I've ever had a dog's teeth cleaned. Yeah, exactly. And my dogs live a long time, like 14. Exactly.
And the thing is, you're there and you feel horrible because you only want to do what's best for your pet. But what happens is they have a list of all the services they want to sell to you. And that's going to be one of them. And you feel horrible that you... even have to think about the decision. Of course. But it's like, that's a lot of money.
I mean, most people don't have $5,000 lying around the house.
Putting your dog under anesthesia is not a small thing. I mean, dogs die. People die under anesthesia. You're suspending life in a living thing. Totally.
Yeah, so I think what happens is it's the list of services that they'll try to sell you and make you feel horrible that you don't care about your dog if you don't buy from this menu.
There's so much emotional leverage. People are so intense about their animals. Yes. Not in my house. We have, you know, critical distance. You know, you'd do anything. You'd sell your car. I mean, I would. And so they have a lot of power when they're upselling. Yes, totally.
It seems like the incentives would produce actually bad outcomes where your dog or cat is getting treatments they don't need, and that might be counterproductive.
Well, I think what happens is people just stop going to the vet at all. I mean, that's what we've seen, is that there's tens of millions of dogs that never go to the veterinarian. At Dutch, 50% don't go to the vet, haven't been to the vet in years. And it's because they don't want to feel bad for not buying extra services for their dog. That's amazing. What about all the shots?
There are a lot of shots and they're very expensive.
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Chapter 8: How can pet owners advocate for better veterinary care?
You get hard cases among vets, but most vets I know just really love animals. Yes. Christmas is here. That means you're eating a lot. We are. It's a tough time to get on the scale because the meals keep coming and so does the weight gain. But what if there was a way to eat like you want to eat without getting really fat over Christmas week? This is an ongoing concern in my house.
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Visit dutch.com slash Tucker to learn more. Use the code Tucker for 50 bucks off your veterinary care per year. Your dogs, your cats, and your wallet will thank you. Where do you keep your most valuable possessions? Not your necktie or a pair of socks, but things you wouldn't want to replace or maybe couldn't.
Heirlooms from your parents, your birth certificate, your firearms, your grandfather's shotgun. Where do you store those? Under the bed? The back of a closet? No, that's unwise and maybe unsafe. Liberty Safe is the place to store them. I would know. I have a colonial safe from Liberty Safe. It's in my garage. It's the best. I keep everything in there. It's a pro-flex system.
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