Vet Fees and the Politics of Pet Ownership: Why a Trip to the Clinic Could Become a Political Issue
May 20, 2025
As a dog owner, I’ve experienced firsthand the joy pets bring into our lives—and the quiet anxiety that often creeps in when you’re handed the bill after a routine checkup. That tension between love and cost isn’t just anecdotal—it’s widespread. In fact, our new Abacus Data survey conducted just before the 2025 federal election reveals that veterinarian fees are not only a source of financial strain for millions of Canadians—they’re a political issue waiting to happen.
Here’s what we found: 57% of Canadians own at least one pet, with cats and dogs by far the most common companions. For many, pets aren’t accessories or background characters in the story of their lives—they’re family. And as any pet owner knows, keeping your animal healthy means regular visits to the vet. In the past year alone, 94% of pet owners in Canada have visited a veterinarian at least once, and often multiple times.
But that care isn’t cheap. Nearly three-quarters of pet owners (72%) say veterinarian fees are high—with more than one in three (37%) saying they are “unreasonably” so. Only one in four believes the fees are fair. And here’s the stat that should make any policymaker take notice: 34% of pet owners say those vet bills have caused them stress in the past year.
Let me be blunt—if a third of a voting bloc is under stress because of something that affects their daily lives and wallets, we’d call that a pressure point. And when the voting bloc in question includes more than half of the adult population? We call that an opportunity.
We’ve been talking for years in public policy circles about affordability—housing, groceries, gas. But what about the price of caring for a living being you love? In many ways, veterinary care is the last unregulated frontier of essential services. You can’t just skip it when times are tough. Your cat’s kidney disease or your dog’s limp doesn’t wait until interest rates come down.
What makes this even more interesting is how little people know about who owns their vet. While 69% think their clinic is independently owned, nearly 1 in 5 (19%) aren’t sure. That lack of transparency should raise eyebrows. A CBC Marketplace investigation earlier this year helped bring attention to the rapid consolidation of veterinary clinics by large corporate chains—something many pet owners didn’t even realize had happened.
The political implications here are striking.
Among pet owners—again, more than half the adult population—77% support government rules or regulations on the fees that vet clinics can charge. That support transcends ideology: 86% of NDP voters, 79% of Liberals, and 72% of Conservatives agree. This is rare, cross-partisan alignment on a tangible affordability issue. It’s not about left vs. right—it’s about fairness, transparency, and relief from yet another rising cost.
And there’s electoral upside. Nearly half of pet owners (47%) say that if a political party promised to regulate vet fees, they’d be more likely to vote for that party. Just 4% said it would make them less likely. In other words, this is a low-risk, high-reward policy idea that touches a large, emotionally connected, and stressed-out group of voters.
So, why hasn’t vet care become a top-tier political issue?
Maybe it’s because pets are still seen by some as luxury items, not family members. Maybe it’s because the vet sector flies under the radar compared to flashier cost-of-living debates. Or maybe it’s because the stress associated with pet care is deeply personal—something we quietly shoulder and don’t often bring into political conversations.
But that might be changing. As the cost of everything rises and voters increasingly assess parties not only by their ideology but by how in tune they are with the realities of everyday life, issues like vet fees break through. They are symbolic of something larger: the feeling that essential services are slipping out of reach.
I’m always looking for the unmet needs of consumers, voters, and workers. It’s how campaigns find wedge issues. It’s how brands differentiate. And it’s how governments earn trust. This is one of those unmet needs hiding in plain sight. And for any political party looking to build trust with a broad group of Canadians who feel like they’re constantly being asked to pay more for less, veterinary fees may be an unlikely—but powerful—starting point.
Politicians may start to take note. Canadians love their pets. They’re taking care of them as best they can. But many feel like the system is stacked against them—even when they’re just trying to do the right thing for their dog or cat. And as more people talk about the stress that comes from a simple vet visit, expect the political pressure to rise.
If you want to see the full report from our survey, you can download it here.
Methodology
The survey was conducted with 1,682 adult Canadians over the age of 18 from March 10 to 12, 2025. A random sample of panelists were invited to complete the survey from a set of partner panels based on the Lucid exchange platform. These partners are typically double opt-in survey panels, blended to manage out potential skews in the data from a single source.
The margin of error for a comparable probability-based random sample of the same size is +/- 2.39%, 19 times out of 20.
The data were weighted according to census data to ensure that the sample matched Canada’s population according to age, gender, educational attainment, and region. Totals may not add up to 100 due to rounding.
Abacus Data follows the CRIC Public Opinion Research Standards and Disclosure Requirements that can be found here: https://canadianresearchinsightscouncil.ca/standards/
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