I just gotta rant about exploitation of poor people and their pets

[Ms. Toad]

19. Until recently, spaying & neutering was done betwen 6 months & a year -

earlier for males, slightly later for females. It was the one big fee item which usually brought people in to the vet's office (and some of them became regular long term clients). What happens now is that kittens and puppies are being spayed and neutered by the rescue operations with an assembly line type vet the owners never see. That means those adopting the kittens and puppies don't have the big expense that brings them to the vet - and, absent that visit, many pet owners never establish an ongoing relationship with their vets.

The assembly line type vets charge less - and are doing the spay/neuter at an age that most full service vets believe is not medically appropriate (so even if they were willing to cut their rates, they would choose not to operate at that age).

Our vet has lost around 40% of her business to the increase of that kind of assembly line practice.

So - yes, someone is being paid to do the work, but they are doing it for cut rate fees, they are not the vets who would normally be doing the work, they are doing it an an age which many vets believe is inappropriate, and because new owners don't have a specific even to initiate an ongoing relationship with the vet, they often don't.

Sort of the equivalent of Walmart v. mom & pop.