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MONTH: May 2008
Comparative costs of dog & cat sterilization worldwide
Nonprofit humane societies in Japan, Lebanon, and South Korea may pay 30 times more to sterilize a dog or cat than counterparts in India, ANIMAL PEOPLE found in an early 2008 survey of more than 35 agencies in 14 nations, chiefly in Asia and eastern Europe.
The table at right shows the findings, ordered by nation, city, and the type of veterinary practice that the reporting humane societies use.
In-house clinics are included in "nonprofit." Column headings describe the costs of supplies used, including anesthetics, other pharmaceuticals, and surgical items; the wages paid to veterinarians and veterinary technicians; and post-operative expense. The last two columns state the average total cost of sterilizing male and female animals.
Several figures are composites from data reported by multiple humane societies working in the same city. The names of individual societies are not stated, to protect the identities of vets who may give discounts not offered to other clients, and/or give discounts larger than recommended by veterinary guilds.
Despite charging rates equal to or higher than U.S. norms, vets in Japan, Lebanon, and South Korea do not appear to enjoy higher standards of living than vets in India. The costs of living in Japan, Lebanon, and South Korea are all much higher than in India, and the costs of drugs and other surgical materials are proportionally as much higher compared to India as the cost of surgery itself. Beyond that, the higher-priced vets just don't attract as much business.
Animal Help, paying one of the lowest rates per surgery of all the surveyed agencies, paid vets to perform more than 45,000 surgeries in Ahmedabad, India in 2006--more than 100 times as many surgeries as were performed for any of the agencies paying the highest prices, and probably more than the total of all sterilizations done in Lebanon plus South Korea. Animal Help is no longer working in Ahmedabad, mainly due to delays in receiving reimbursement from the city government, but is still working in several other Indian cities.
Japanese, Lebanese, and South Korean vets appear to be able to charge high rates chiefly because they have little competition.
Indian rates are by contrast held down by federal subsidies for surgeries performed as part of authorized Animal Birth Control programs. The subsidies markedly reduce revenue per surgery, but also help to keep clinics busy. The cumulative effect is to stabilize veterinary incomes in the upper middle range of Indian society.
ANIMAL PEOPLE found that at least two cat sterilization programs in Japan are thriving by charging competitive rates and attracting more clients.
Volume and competition help to keep sterilization surgery affordable in eastern Europe, at about half to two-thirds of the current U.S. norms.
The largest nonprofit sterilization service provider in four eastern European nations, also active in many other nations, is the Austrian-based group Vier Pfoten. Vier Pfoten program director Ioana Tomescu told ANIMAL PEOPLE that while the amounts paid to veterinarians per surgery vary widely even within each nation, as result of widely varying operating conditions, vets who work with Vier Pfoten average 30 surgeries per day in all nations combined, at an average labor cost per surgery of just $3.90
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