Economic barriers to veterinary care leave millions of companion animals without treatment for painful and preventable conditions, creating a significant welfare justice issue.
Veterinary access inequality means that an animals welfare depends substantially on their owners income, creating a welfare justice dimension alongside direct welfare concerns. Animals in lower-income households with painful or treatable conditions go untreated not because their owners do not care but because care is unaffordable. This results in prolonged suffering from dental disease, arthritis, infections, and other conditions that would be treated in wealthier households. Economic euthanasia removes animals from suffering but also from lives that could continue with treatment, ending human-animal bonds that have deep importance to both parties. Addressing this welfare gap requires both supply-side solutions (more low-cost care provision) and demand-side solutions (insurance, savings programs, financial assistance) that together reduce the income-welfare correlation in companion animal lives.