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Isabella Bustamante

Professor Kate Kimball

ENC 2135

7 December 2022

Revision

Factors that Impact the Veterinary Shortage

“Having to do with the beasts of burden,” is the Latin meaning of the word veterinarian.

Veterinarians have always taken on a huge burden when entering the profession. When I entered

the veterinary field as a volunteer at an animal hospital, the place I volunteered at was incredibly

understaffed with only one veterinarian since the other veterinarian quit during the pandemic.

The understaffing creates a brutal work environment. The future generation of potential

veterinarians is aware of the intensity of the job, so many become less willing to take on that

burden and make those sacrifices, which in turn creates a shortage of veterinarians. The shortage

of veterinary professionals has been a prominent concern since the early 1700s, when the

profession was created, but more recently their trend of decline has increased significantly. There

are several social, environmental, and geographical factors that contribute to the recent

exponential decline in veterinarians such as the increased debt-to-income ratio.

Veterinary students accumulate large amounts of debt from their undergraduate degree to

their Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree. The amount of debt a person gains from attending a

Veterinary school is large and has an impact on a student’s decision to enter the field. Esther

Honig is an investigative journalist who has been cited by US Senators, she was the recipient of

the UC Berkeley 11th Hour Food and Farming Fellowship, and she has been recognized by the

Society for Professional Journalists. Honig interviewed many people for her article regarding
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veterinary medicine including Mark Stetter who is the dean of the College of Veterinary

Medicine at Colorado State University. Esther Honig wrote, “Vet school loans are hefty: an

average of $143,757” (Honig). That is an enormous number. We have to consider the fact that

once students graduate from veterinary school and become veterinarians, they are not going to be

able to pay their debt off immediately. Because of this interest is going to build on their

veterinary school loans and that number will continue to increase. Another fact that must be

taken into consideration is that veterinarians also have to pay off their debt from their

undergraduate degree. So, on top of the national average of $143,757 (Honig), veterinarians have

even more debt to pay off from other schooling. The amount of debt a student would have to

choose to take on in order to become a veterinarian is unruly. Most students aren’t able to make

that sacrifice, and they are not willing to be paying off student loans for the rest of their life.

Larissa Caner is a university student who was interested in veterinary medicine. Larissa stated,

“Originally, I wanted to become a veterinarian. I have always loved animals and I would have

loved to take care of them. I decided to pursue another career path because as I looked into

becoming a veterinarian, I realized that it would be illogical. I wouldn’t have enough money to

pay off my debt, let alone for a stable lifestyle” (Caner). Students who are interested in the

career, such as Larissa Caner, get deterred from entering the field just as they begin looking into

it. The large amount of debt, low income, and long hours aren’t worth taking care of animals to

many students. The future generation wants a stable income, with vacation time, and they want

to be able to retire without worrying about their student loan debt.

Veterinarians need a higher income to live a sustainable lifestyle and to pay off their debt.

This will attract more students into the veterinary medicine field. Malinda Larkin is the senior

news editor for the established American Veterinary Medical Association. She researched
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veterinarian’s salaries and their debt-to-income ratios, while also getting thoughts from Bridgette

Bain who has a Ph.D. and is the associate director of analytics at the American Veterinary

Medical Association. Malinda Larkin wrote, “Dr. Bain encouraged employers to consider

personalizing compensation to attract new graduates, whether through relocation bonuses, more

time off, or larger signing bonuses. She also recommended communication across institutions,

including veterinary colleges, to identify successful strategies for debt management.” (Larkin).

Because there is a need for more veterinarians, veterinary clinics and hospitals need to provide

higher wages and more incentives in order to attract more students into the field. As I stated

earlier, students will continue to not enter due to the lack of money and the high debt they would

accumulate. Brooke Bright is a former veterinary technician who worked for several years in

veterinary medicine. Brooke Bright said, “I was a veterinary technician and received minimum

wage. I was barely able to afford my apartment. I want to pursue veterinary school but without

the guarantee of a proper income I am not able to do that. If veterinarians were paid more, I

would be able to attend veterinary school and eventually pay off my debt. Unfortunately, that’s

not the case” (Bright). Students and veterinary technicians want to pursue their dreams and

become veterinarians. But they are consistently held back. Most of it comes down the lack of

money, benefits, and large debt. As the debt-to-income ratio gets higher in veterinary medicine,

the more students give up on their dreams to become veterinarians. This eventually leads to less

veterinarians entering the field, which contributes to the decline in the amount of veterinarians.

There is an uneven distribution of veterinarians in certain specialties, which creates many

problems within the animal healthcare community. The uneven distribution of veterinarians is

largely due to the fact that veterinary students pick a field based on how much income they can

make in order to pay off their debt. Malinda Larkin found, “53% of graduates went into
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companion animal practice and 25% into advanced education.” (Larkin). These statistics show

that a large amount of graduating veterinarians enter into the small animal field. Since the other

25% of graduating veterinarians went into advanced education, we can assume that the others

went into other areas such as rural animal medicine or zoo animal medicine. This means that the

percentages of each area were so nominal that it wasn’t even noteworthy. This indicates how

small the percentage of veterinarians entering other fields are. There is not a large amount of

veterinarians who enter other areas besides small animal medicine. This is actually not due to a

large income division. Clinton Neil, Rodney Holcomb, Kellie Raper and Brian Whitacre all work

in the Department of Agriculture Economics at different universities in the United States and

they all collaborated to research the spatial density of veterinarians and how it affects their

income. Clinton Neil, Rodney Holcomb, Kellie Raper and Brian Whitacre concluded, “Since

there is little difference in income earning opportunities between food animal and companion

animal veterinarians, it is likely that animal healthcare access will continue to decline” (Neil Et

Al.). It is not the difference in income that is creating the decline in veterinarians. It is the uneven

spatial density of veterinarians. Since there is already an incredibly small amount of

veterinarians, there are not a lot of veterinarians willing to give up their lifestyle from the

suburbs or the city, willing to live in rural areas to work. The result of this distribution creates a

strong and negative impact on animal healthcare. Esther Honig wrote, “The U.S Department of

Agriculture identified 187 mostly rural areas that lack sufficient access to a veterinarian. Rural

wages have not kept up with rising student debt …The shortage isn't due to lack of interest,

Stetter said. His department recently conducted a survey, which found that 30 percent of students

said…that they want to work in rural areas as food animal veterinarians. Less than 10 percent of

graduates actually take a rural job” (Honig). As debt continues to rise in veterinary medicine,
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more students in veterinary school are realizing that the career they want to pursue in veterinary

medicine is not attainable or reasonable to pursue. This creates an incredible decrease in the

amount of veterinarians all other fields besides small animal medicine and specialty work (from

advanced education). Due to this the amount of veterinarians will continue to drop in areas such

as in rural veterinary medicine (Food animal medicine) and in zoo veterinary medicine.

COVID-19 had an enormous impact on the entire world and has also caused a lot of

changes in the veterinary field. The veterinary field was already struggling with overwhelming

issues involving burnout, mental health, and debt. But the added pressures and concerns from

patients and Doctors of Veterinary Medicine created an intense workplace environment in

veterinary clinics. This being said, COVID-19 added more stress and intensity in the veterinary

workplace. Audrey Curtis is an experienced volunteer who worked at an animal hospital during

the beginning of the pandemic. Audrey Curtis stated, “COVID-19 had a large impact on the

practice I was working in. The stress of wondering if you were going to catch this unexplored

virus was very threatening. This was on top of our insane flow of patients” (Audrey Curtis). The

stress of handling the pressure of the pandemic and pace at an animal hospital can be

overbearing. Working at an animal hospital is a very fast-paced and emergent work environment.

This is due to the urgency and the surplus of patients needing to be seen. Matthew Salois has a

Ph.D. in economics and is the American Veterinary Medical Association’s Chief Economist, and

Gail Golab has a Ph.D., is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, is certified as a member of the

Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists, is a charter diplomate of the

American College of Animal Welfare, and is the American Veterinary Medical Association’s

Chief Veterinary Officer. Gail Golab and Matthew Salois drew the conclusion, “During the

pandemic the amount of visits from patients went up…Clients were spending more time at home
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with their pets, which gave them the opportunity to spot health issues more readily and… Many

also had more disposable income that they could now allocate to pet care” (Salois and Golab).

Because there was an increase in patients, this added another element to the veterinary workplace

environment. As mentioned earlier, animal hospitals are already very stressful, urgent, and fast-

paced environments. Adding an even greater influx of patients would create an insanely

unbearable and overworked environment. The influx of patients during the pandemic would

indicate why clinics were so overwhelmed. It’s hard to function well as a team when that team is

overworked and overloaded. This also can be especially intense in the workplace when there are

not enough doctors or support staff. Gail Golab and Matthew Salois continued to write, “Many

hospitals are operating with fewer team members and dealing with higher turnover” (Salois and

Golab). COVID-19 was able to cause a higher rate of which veterinarians were leaving the

industry (turnover rate). This caused many hospitals and clinics to become understaffed, which

added even more pressure and anxiety to the veterinarians and staff. The more pressure the team

is under, the more likely they are to leave or become burned out. More pressure just kept

building, and building on top of veterinary professionals during the pandemic.

As more pressure is added to the veterinarians and the veterinary staff due to the effects

of COVID, it will create an even bigger shortage in veterinarians as they begin to leave to take

care of their well-being. Carrie Jurney is a veterinary neurologist (interviewed by Sarah Zhang

from The Atlantic) who discussed the effects of the pandemic on veterinarians. Sarah Zhang

gathered the following quote from Carrie Journey, “All of my friends who were at retirement age

just retired immediately” (Zhang). For the veterinarians, their life and their family members lives

were not worth the risk of staying in at their job. At the end of the day, veterinarians are people

too. They were as scared as everyone else when the pandemic seemingly exploded
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internationally and the fear of losing their loved ones was enough for them to leave the field. The

higher turnover rate and retirement rate created understaffed hospitals and clinics, which were

already low on staff to begin with. Sarah Zhang continues by writing, “Over the course of the

pandemic, those who remained saw their jobs get worse. Owners stressed by lockdowns became

angrier and more unruly towards veterinary staff” (Zhang). Due to the tensions rising over the

pandemic, lockdowns, and scary media regarding COVID-19, many people were overwhelmed

which clouded their mental judgement and empathy. This created many problems in the

veterinary clinics, as clients would get frustrated and take their anger out on the veterinary staff.

Many of the staff members in a veterinary clinic were burnout and overwhelmed, especially with

the added pressures of the pandemic. Veterinarians are already under an overwhelming amount

of pressure, which is evident by the high suicide rates the profession has had over the years.

Sarah Zhang also gathered, “Female veterinarians are also 3.5 times as likely to die by suicide as

the general population, and male vets are about twice as likely, according to a 2018 CDC study”

(Zhang). The amount of pressure veterinarians are under can contribute to a declining mental

health which would only worsen with the elements of the pandemic. Additionally, Audrey Curtis

later went on to explain that she witnessed veterinarians and veterinary technicians quit or retire

during the pandemic. Due to the intense stress in the work environment, which contributed to a

higher turnover and retirement rate in the veterinary workforce, this created an even bigger

shortage in the number of available veterinarians. The pandemic lead to decreased efficiency,

understaffing, higher turnover rates, and a greater mental decline than ever seen before in the

veterinary profession. All of this led to more veterinarians leaving, creating an even bigger

demand for veterinarians needed.

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The veterinary shortage was influenced by COVID-19, the disproportionate distribution

of veterinarians, and the amount of debt a student has to succumb to when entering the field.

Although the world has been in a veterinary shortage since the beginning of the profession in the

1700s, we should consider the reasons for this shortage and strive to change the future of

veterinary medicine in order to create more accessible animal care.

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Works Cited

Bright, Brooke. Personal interview. 20 September 2022.

Caner, Larissa. Personal interview. 20 September 2022.

Curtis, Audrey. Personal interview. 20 September 2022.

Honig, Esther. “Shortage of Rural Veterinarians Puts Farmers, Food Supply at Risk.” NPR,

NPR, 16 June 2018,

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/06/16/620387349/shortage-of-rural-

veterinarians-puts-farmers-food-supply-at-risk.

Larkin, Malinda. “Increase in Veterinarians' Starting Salaries Long Overdue, Economist Says.”

American Veterinary Medical Association, 17 Nov. 2021, https://www.avma.org/javma-

news/2021-12-01/increase-veterinarians-starting-salaries-long-overdue-economist-says.

Neill, Clinton L. Et Al. “Effects Of Spatial Density On Veterinarian Income: Where Are All Of

The Veterinarians?” Applied Economics 51.14 (2019): 1532–1540. Web.

Salois, Matthew, Et Al. “Are We in a Veterinary Workforce Crisis?” American Veterinary

Medical Association, 25 Aug. 2021, https://www.avma.org/javma-news/2021-09-15/are-

we-veterinary-workforce-crisis.

Zhang, Sarah. “The Great Veterinary Shortage.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 6 July

2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/07/not-enough-veterinarians-

animals/661497/.