America has a kitten problem. Every day, thousands of cats and kittens are abandoned, surrendered, or discarded. Those who are lucky enough to be taken in by an animal shelter or rescue organization may find themselves in a loving home, but there are millions of cats euthanized every year as a result of overcrowding, preventable illness and injury, or simply because their owners can no longer afford to keep them. And when vets are charging almost a thousand dollars to spay a cat, can we really blame them?

The price to spay a cat in America varies enormously from state to state, suburb to city. While the average price is around $250-$350, some veterinary practices are asking as much as $840 to spay a cat, and $560 for castration, and many will not disclose their fees until you have registered your pet and made an appointment. As a veterinary surgeon, I am fiercely protective of my profession and our right to charge for our services, but over $800 to spay a cat? That is downright criminal.

If we’re serious about tackling the stray cat population, we have a responsibility to make neutering services affordable for everyone.

Yes, having a pet is a privilege, not a right, and yes, if you can’t afford to take care of a pet, you shouldn’t have one, but when did basic preventive healthcare become a luxury? Pet cats need to be sterilized; it’s not a preventable condition, nor is it one covered by pet insurance, and you can’t exactly pass judgment on someone for taking on a cat without being able to pay for their basic needs when the cost of those needs has more than doubled, sometimes quadrupled, in recent years.¹

Fortunately, dozens of animal welfare organizations around the country offer discounted spay and neuter clinics, and if you adopt a cat from an animal shelter, they are invariably already sterilized. But why should the same people who are already working to rescue and rehome cats and kittens also be responsible for providing discounted surgery? Veterinary practices need to do better, and that goes double for the clinics owned by large corporations.

With private equity and large corporations buying and consolidating thousands of veterinary practices across the country, it has become increasingly difficult to know where your vet fees are going and who is ultimately in charge of your local vet’s management. It is getting harder and harder for independently owned practices to compete against giants like Mars or JAB, and there is often a lack of transparency when a practice is taken over. Theoretically, the huge buying power of these corporate giants should allow them to pass on savings to their clients by offering lower costs for essential care, but this doesn’t seem to be the case, with veterinary costs increasing well beyond the rate of inflation since 2019.² There needs to be a price cap or fee control for certain essentials like spaying and neutering. Pet owners shouldn’t have to price-shop or travel great distances to find affordable veterinary care, and they certainly shouldn’t feel the need to abandon their unneutered cat because they can’t afford $800 to have them fixed.

The stray cat crisis is EVERYONE’S problem, and standardized spay and neutering fees are one way that all veterinary practices can put a solution within everyone’s reach.

Feature Image Credit: mojo cp, Shutterstock

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