Ask Me Anything #7: The Veterinary Shortage Smokescreen

How Powerful Interests Are Hijacking a Real Crisis to Roll Back Spay/Neuter and Threaten the Future of Animal Welfare

In this seventh edition of Ask Me Anything, a sharp-eyed Animal Politics reader cuts straight to the heart of a growing threat: “Is the veterinary shortage a genuine crisis, or are powerful interests using it as an opportunity to roll back spay/neuter laws and risk a return to pet overpopulation?”

The answer? It's both.

The shortage is painfully real, especially for shelters and low-income communities. But powerful organizations are using the crisis as political cover to advance policies that could undo decades of progress in animal welfare. If the sheltering profession isn’t prepared, it will be caught flat-footed. We need a smarter, faster response—and it starts with seeing the battlefield clearly.

Never let a good crisis go to waste.

As one political strategist famously said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” That’s exactly what’s happening now. The nationwide shortage of veterinarians is a real and pressing crisis. But instead of addressing the root causes, powerful organizations* are seizing the moment to advance a sweeping agenda — one that risks unraveling the gains made in animal welfare over the past generation.

By framing “community sheltering” as a necessary "solution," these groups are hijacking the veterinary shortage crisis to push through policies that would have been unthinkable under normal circumstances. What’s at stake is the humane progress shelters have fought decades to achieve in animal welfare, including the safety, health, and humane treatment of millions of animals across the country.

Shelters and nonprofits are hardest hit:

• 73% of animal welfare organizations report veterinary shortages, especially in rural shelters and high-volume spay/neuter clinics.

• Root causes include private sector salary competition, high burnout rates (45% of shelter vets considering leaving), and geographic gaps in rural and low-income areas.

While shelters drown and vets burn out, a powerful few cash in—using crisis as cover to dismantle decades of lifesaving progress.

The shortage is sector-specific, not fabricated. Relaxing spay/neuter funding worsens pet overpopulation, leading to higher euthanasia rates — the exact opposite of what the animal welfare movement has fought to achieve.

Yet The Consortium*-a coalition that includes Best Friends Animal Society, ASPCA, Petsmart Charities and others-is actively using the veterinary shortage to push for dangerous rollbacks in spay/neuter funding, surrender protocols, and community protections.

Internal documents and public statements from Consortium* leaders clarify that their model deliberately deprioritizes spay/neuter as a core sheltering strategy, shifting focus toward managed intake, foster care, and community-based interventions instead. This approach marks a significant departure from proven population control measures, putting shelters at risk of increased intake and euthanasia. Their model may achieve appealing optics, but at the cost of long-term, data-driven outcomes.

Shelters must recognize the stakes—and respond with bold, targeted strategies:

At a time when shelters are overwhelmed and euthanasia is again on the rise, returning to proven strategies is not optional—it’s essential. Spay/neuter is not a boutique service or a box to check; it is the cornerstone of every successful effort to reduce intake and end unnecessary killing.

Some national organizations, however, now downplay or divert resources from spay/neuter, pushing shelters toward reactive strategies that have failed to stabilize intake or sustain lifesaving outcomes. When shelters abandon prevention, they trade long-term progress for short-term optics—and animals pay the price.

To counter these misguided trends and reclaim lost ground, shelters must implement strategic reforms that rebuild capacity, restore prevention, and re-center lifesaving as the core mission. These actions include:

Demand systemic change:

• Advocate for robust loan forgiveness programs that incentivize veterinarians to work in shelters and underserved areas. California’s Veterinary Public Interest Debt Relief Program, which offers up to $150,000 in loan repayment for shelter veterinarians, is a model worth replicating. The USDA’s Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) also provides financial relief to veterinarians committed to serving in designated shortage areas, ensuring vital veterinary care is available where it’s needed most.

Expand Veterinary Technicians' Roles:

• Push for legislation that enables credentialed veterinary technicians to perform routine, essential procedures—like anesthesia administration, suturing, and diagnostic imaging—under direct veterinary supervision. In states like Colorado, these changes have helped alleviate workloads, increased care capacity, and boosted staff retention. Shelters can replicate these models to reduce the strain on veterinarians and optimize service delivery.

Build Smart Partnerships:

• Forge formal partnerships with corporate clinics to provide discounted or pro bono spay/neuter services. These collaborations, like those between the Miami Veterinary Foundation and Miami Dade Animal Services, increase the availability of vital sterilization procedures, reduce shelter intake, and ensure shelters can manage resources more effectively.

Create Shelter Medicine Rotations:

• Partner with veterinary schools to offer shelter medicine rotations for veterinary students, giving them hands-on experience in a challenging, high-volume environment. These rotations not only benefit shelters by adding capacity but also help foster a new generation of veterinarians committed to shelter medicine as a career path.

Innovate Shelter Operations:

• Implement high-volume, high-quality spay/neuter (HQHVSN) protocols to maximize surgical throughput. These evidence-based processes streamline scheduling, enhance training, and increase capacity without compromising patient care, ensuring shelters serve more animals with fewer resources.

Leverage Telemedicine:

• Use telemedicine triage to quickly assess non-urgent cases, allowing veterinarians to prioritize critical care while managing less urgent cases remotely. This reduces clinic congestion, optimizes veterinary time, and ensures that animals get the care they need, when they need it.

Pilot AI-Assisted Diagnostics:

• Introduce AI tools for routine diagnostics to help shelter staff quickly identify health issues, flag potential concerns, and streamline workflows. AI-assisted diagnostics can maximize the impact of limited veterinary expertise, helping shelters care for more animals despite staffing challenges.

Invest in Future Talent:

• Launch apprenticeship programs for veterinary assistants, offering hands-on experience, mentorship, and financial incentives to pursue veterinary degrees. This helps ensure a sustainable pipeline of talent for shelter medicine, reducing reliance on temporary fixes and building a skilled workforce for the future.

Recruit International Talent:

• Fill critical gaps by recruiting internationally trained veterinarians to work under supervision in shelter settings. These professionals can provide valuable care while working toward licensure, helping shelters maintain essential services and care continuity during domestic shortages.

Expand Community Support Programs:

• Promote subsidized spay/neuter vouchers for pet owners, ensuring that financial barriers don’t prevent responsible pet ownership. These programs reduce shelter intake by helping keep animals in their homes, preventing overpopulation, and relieving pressure on shelter systems.

Engage Volunteer Support:

• Train volunteers to assist in post-operative recovery and routine shelter tasks. By augmenting veterinary staff, volunteers ensure timely care for animals recovering from surgeries, freeing up veterinary professionals to focus on more critical cases and improving overall shelter capacity.

Engage Veterinary Leadership:

• Frame reforms as supportive of veterinarians’ well-being, not as threats to their roles. Advocate for changes like expanded use of veterinary technicians or midlevel providers, emphasizing that these efforts are meant to reduce burnout, not replace veterinarians. Present these reforms as ways to alleviate workload pressures, allowing DVMs to focus on complex cases while maintaining professional oversight.

• Partner with the AVMA and veterinary boards to pilot innovative workforce solutions, such as allowing trained technicians to conduct certain procedures under veterinary supervision. These pilot programs will provide valuable data to inform sustainable workforce policies.

• Position shelter medicine as a form of public service, crucial for community health and safety. Framing shelter work as essential to public welfare can attract more mission-driven veterinarians, justify increased funding, and solidify shelter medicine's role as a societal necessity

The Bottom Line:

Communities must not be deceived by The Consortium’s calculated abandonment of spay/neuter—a move that serves organizational growth, not animal welfare. For decades, spay/neuter has been the single most effective strategy for reducing shelter intake, euthanasia, and the suffering caused by pet overpopulation. Every time major organizations have deprioritized it, the consequences have been immediate and severe: more unwanted litters, packed shelters, and the unraveling of hard-won no-kill progress.

By shifting focus to managed intake, foster care, transports, and loosely defined “community interventions,” The Consortium* isn’t innovating—it’s perpetuating a profitable crisis. This model manufactures the appearance of lifesaving success while trapping shelters in a relentless cycle of intake and euthanasia that keeps the donations flowing and the problem unsolved.

Preventive action—not reactive, revenue-driven programming—is the only path to lasting change. High-volume, accessible spay/neuter must remain the cornerstone of any serious animal welfare policy. Abandoning prevention in favor of optics endangers both animals and communities. To protect the progress we’ve made and build a truly humane future, we must return spay/neuter to its rightful place: front and center.

Your Voice Matters:

Progress in animal welfare has never been inevitable—it’s the result of relentless civic engagement. If you’re alarmed by the direction some national organizations are taking, here are four ways to make a meaningful impact at the local level:

Write Your Elected Officials

Let your representatives know that animal welfare matters—and that you expect them to champion prevention-based solutions like accessible spay/neuter, Trap-Neuter-Return, and responsible intake.

Here’s a sample letter to get you started:

Dear [Councilmember/Shelter Director’s Name],

I’m writing as a resident of [Your City] who cares deeply about the welfare of animals in our community. I urge you to support practical, long-term solutions that have been proven to reduce shelter crowding and euthanasia—like affordable spay/neuter programs, Trap-Neuter-Return for feral community cats, and responsible intake policies.

I’m concerned that some national groups are promoting short-term strategies that may look good on paper but fail in practice. These approaches often ignore what works and risk undoing years of progress and public safety.

Please ensure that [Your City] continues to prioritize programs that truly protect animals and public safety.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]
[Your City, Zip Code]

Attend Public Meetings

Show up at city council or shelter oversight meetings. Ask hard questions. Demand transparency. Public comment can change the course of policy.

Organize Locally

Whether formal or informal, coalitions of informed citizens are the backbone of every meaningful reform. Join forces. Stay vocal. Stay vigilant.

Share This Message

Spread the word—especially to those in power. Public pressure begins with public awareness..

Join the conversation below.

*Addendum: What is the Consortium?

Animal advocates use the term Consortium to describe a powerful, informal alliance of organizations reshaping shelter policy—often at the expense of prevention and public safety.

This network includes:

• Maddie’s Fund

• Koret Shelter Medicine Program (KSMP)

• Best Friends Animal Society (BFAS) / Shelter Pet Data Alliance (SPDA)

• American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)

• PetSmart Charities

• National Animal Control Association (NACA)

• Human Animal Support Services (HASS)

• Outcomes Consulting

• Team Shelter USA

Update: It’s important to note that the Consortium is not a formal organization with fixed membership, but rather an informal network whose composition and influence can shift over time. In recent weeks, Animal Politics has been contacted by individuals associated with the Consortium who now wish to distance themselves from the group. We may be updating the above list soon as more information becomes available regarding these developments. Regardless of its fluid membership, the Consortium’s collective influence is reshaping animal welfare policy nationwide—often at the expense of transparency, prevention, and public safety.

Ed Boks is a former Executive Director of the New York City, City of Los Angeles, and Maricopa County Animal Care & Control Departments, and a former Board Director of the National Animal Control Association. His work has been published in the LA Times, New York Times, Newsweek, Real Clear Policy, Sentient Media, and now on Animal Politics with Ed Boks.

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