07/20/2026
Who owns your veterinary hospital—and who is actually making the decisions?
At the July 15 meeting of the California Veterinary Medical Board, I called for three basic reforms:
First: Every veterinary facility should be required to publicly disclose every person and entity with an ownership or controlling interest—including parent companies, private equity sponsors, management companies, and veterinary service organizations.
Second: Accountability should follow actual authority and control. Veterinarians should remain responsible for their own clinical decisions, but owners and controlling entities should also be accountable when problems result from staffing cuts, denied resources, production mandates, budgets, or business policies imposed on the hospital.
Third: Veterinarians and staff should be protected when they document and report owner or corporate interference with professional judgment or minimum standards of care.
Pet owners should not have to dig through corporate filings, job postings, privacy policies, and layers of limited liability companies just to learn who owns and controls the hospital treating their animal.
This is not anti-business. It is pro-transparency, pro-professional independence, and pro-consumer protection.
To every veterinary facility or corporate group that believes California consumers do not need to know who owns and controls their hospital: this video is for you.
Do you believe veterinary facilities should be required to publicly disclose their full ownership and control structure?
These comments reflect my personal views and do not represent an official position of the California Veterinary Medical Board.
