608 Vet Practice

Since this shower has taken over so many vets in the UK. Due to the prices, it will mean many people won't take their animals, so the animals could be suffering. My sister had to have a rabbit put down; she was charged £210. I have tried to look for an independent vet, but they are fully booked, and they are not taking new clients. It's so sad when money has taken over. I am sure they became vets to give animals care, it seems now money comes first. I have even noticed adverts are coming online with cats and dogs, to get seen too for check-ups, even though they might be perfectly healthy

I took my Mum's 13-year-old cat to a surgery now owned by this group. Despite the cat showing no signs of being in pain, they advised some dental work and we were told that a nurse would call Mum with a quote. A week later she got a call and scribbled down a few notes. She's 88 and doesn't take in information very well, so she passed what details she had to me. The treatment had been split into 2 parts, the sum of which was around £1300. I couldn't believe it. I emailed the surgery to question the need for 2 parts and if that figure was correct. It transpired that part 1 was an investigation into what needed doing and part 2 was the dental work itself. The figures Mum scribbled down turned out to be incorrect, and the total cost was actually £1500!! I was told that it would be about a fortnight between parts 1 & 2 being carried out and splitting it up would "help to spread the cost." Mum is on a State pension so I noted that it would take a lot more than 14 days to split such a ridiculous amount. I confirmed that no appointment would be made unless Mum's cat showed obvious changes to her behaviour that would indicate her being in pain. Loving a rescue animal and wanting to give it a good life should NOT mean being taken for every penny you have! I expressed my disgust to Mars Petcare UK who own Linnaeus and questioned who actually sets these prices. Typically, I've been fobbed off by a "We've received your message and will pass it on to the appropriate team," reply and nothing further has been heard. This situation is a modern disease. The emphasis of the surgery pre-takeover was always on the welfare of the pet. Now it is simply focussed on profit. I don't know where that ideology comes from but there have been whistle-blowers in the Press who say they have been pressurised to meet financial targets since their surgeries were bought out. These groups who take over local surgeries don't give a damn if the animal gets dumped or put to sleep prematurely because of costs. Neither do they care if the pet is someone's sole companion and the threat of a £1500 bill leaves them in tears. The stock answer from a surgery now is "Well, you can claim it back on the insurance," as if all will be well. They don't realise or don't wish to acknowledge that an excess has to be paid first. Then, for older pets, the insurers gobble up an extra 20% so that only 80% gets returned. Then your premiums go up because you've dared to make a claim. Not that this would apply to my Mum's case of course because they don't cover routine dental work anyway. The end result of insurers and Mars Petcare downwards is distress, financial hardship, premature euthanasia, or abandonment. Their profit-based focus costs lives and stretches local rescues to the limit. Still, so long as your shareholders and foreign investors get their dividends to stash away offshore then there's no harm done eh. Shame on the lot of you. I really don't know how you sleep at night.

My vets were taken over by this group and the costs became ridiculous. After over 20 years, I've had to move to a different practice. Shame on you for nastily capitalising on pet parent anxieties to make an obscene amount of money.

Have had to leave this vet’s as I found them to be very cold and uncaring. The staff made me feel very uncomfortable. Luckily there are lots of other vet’s in the area I can take my cat to.

Since Linnaeus took over Peak Vets, they have gone down the route of trying to push additional expensive tests on your pet, and also now charge you for an 'emergency appointment' if you book a slot on the day, which they did not previously do unless it was outside surgery hours. I like Peak Vets, but not the corporate Linnaeus attitude now driving them.