PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sara Naomi Lewkowicz, Co-Founder of 10 Lives Rescue, on the Impact of Private Equity on Veterinary Care Costs and Animal Overpopulation
3:53:42
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129 sec
Sara Naomi Lewkowicz, co-founder of 10 Lives Rescue, testifies about the devastating impact of private equity on veterinary care costs, contributing to the animal overpopulation crisis in New York City. She emphasizes the need for affordable spay/neuter services and proposes solutions to address the issue.
- Highlights the significant influence of private equity firms on veterinary practices, driving up costs and making care unaffordable for many pet owners.
- Describes a cycle of unaltered pets being adopted, reaching sexual maturity, and then being abandoned due to behavioral issues or unwanted pregnancies.
- Suggests potential solutions such as forgiving veterinary loans for vets working in affordable care and offering incentives to private practices to provide low-cost services.
Sara Naomi Lewkowicz
3:53:42
I'm a cofounder of 10 Lives Rescue.
3:53:45
I'm not gonna tell you stories about the rescue we've done because there's people here who are way more qualified than me to talk about that.
3:53:52
But what I do wanna talk to you about is the fact that private equities, influence on the cost of veterinary care, has been devastating.
3:54:00
I heard neighborhood vets pointed out, and I was really glad that they did because it's a massive problem and it's a big reason for why this overpopulation crisis is happening.
3:54:13
Nationwide about a quarter of general veterinary practices are now owned by large corporations and about three quarters of specialty practices like emergency and surgery are owned by private equity.
3:54:25
I think from 2017, it was something like $45,000,000,000 in deal making was done was done by them.
3:54:33
And it's a New Yorker.
3:54:34
It's Americans in general, and it's New Yorkers who are suffering because of this.
3:54:38
We see a pipeline.
3:54:39
Kitten comes from an unfixed mother, adopted into a home unfixed Kitten reaches sexual maturity.
3:54:46
Kitten begins spraying or gets pregnant.
3:54:49
Kitten is dumped.
3:54:50
Rinse and repeat.
3:54:51
It's just it's constant.
3:54:53
I have a woman who I'm working with who lives in the NYCHA Housing near me.
3:54:58
And she wants to get her cat fixed.
3:55:00
And I asked her to make a statement.
3:55:02
She said, I reside in NYCHA.
3:55:04
I'm a cat owner.
3:55:05
I've had my cats since she was a kitten.
3:55:07
I wanted to get her spade, but the price was too high.
3:55:10
I cannot afford it.
3:55:12
I have 2 young children to care for 1000 of cat owners would be grateful and happy for this.
3:55:17
There's a need, there's a desire, and this is like a nonpartisan issue.
3:55:22
This should be really easy to knock out of the park, and there are other cities that have done it.
3:55:29
I think we should think about forgiving veterinary loans for vets that go into this type of affordable space nootter.
3:55:37
I think you should think about supplementing private vet practices that wanna do this kind of work on their off time, but you can't ask them to do it out of the goodness of their hearts.
3:55:47
You have to offer them incentives.
3:55:50
That's all I got.