The rising cost of veterinary care is creating welfare inequality among companion animals, with pets of lower-income owners receiving less care at the cost of animal suffering.
Veterinary access inequality is an often invisible welfare problem because it operates through absence — the treatment that did not happen, the illness that was not investigated, the pain that was not managed. Animals in households that cannot afford veterinary care are not experiencing poor welfare due to neglect by their owners; they are experiencing poor welfare due to structural economic barriers that prevent their owners from providing adequate care. Welfare policy that ignores this dimension and focuses only on enforcement of welfare standards will consistently miss the animals most in need.