In an attempt to bully customers into buying their more expensive medications, VCA Animal Hospital has changed their policy, effective 05/01/23: you can buy from them, or take a paper prescription to your choice of pharmacies. For people with more than one pet, people who foster, people who simply don’t have time for this aggravation (which includes pretty much the entire pet parent population) this level of corporate greed is absolutely deplorable.

On their website VCA touts themselves as a company concerned about the planet, “We believe we all have a responsibility to care for the world we share. This means being ever mindful of our effect on the Earth’s health and taking decisive steps to minimize our environmental impact.” But their polices don’t align. On a recent wellness exam, I was informed that VCA will no longer accept or confirm any prescriptions with online retailers, nor will they phone in prescriptions to discount pharmacies. The new procedure is for the office to hand you a paper prescription that you can then take to the pharmacist of your choice.

I chose to use Chewy to fill my heartworm preventative so I got that piece of paper. I now have to transfer this paper to Chewy via a paper envelope. As virtually all of my banking, bill payment, etc., is done electronically, I almost never get mail so the mailman rarely comes to my house. I can’t leave a prescription sitting in my mailbox waiting for pick up for 3-4 days! Additionally, a new target of criminals is to not only steal mail from resident mailboxes, but the mail trucks themselves. So, in the interest of safety, I am now forced to drive to the post office to put the paper envelope, containing the paper prescription, in the post office mailbox, 4.5 miles each way. This is not only a nuisance, but more importantly, a waste of resources. For a company who brags they are “mindful” of their impact on the planet, it is quite a waste of paper. Given that we are in the age of technology and virtually all transactions can be completed online, it is a huge disappointment – and earthly disservice – for VCA to regress to processing something as simple as heartworm medication the longest, and most inconvenient, way possible.

As I did not buy directly from VCA I am not able to compare the prices on Interceptor, but for a different medication I purchased the initial bottle from VCA with the paper prescription for refills at Costco.  With only one month between transactions there was a cost delta of 25%!

I told everyone I know.  I posted to social media.  I offered to provide stamped, addressed envelopes but my efforts to enrage the masses fell on busy ears.  The ears of people who, when given the choice between writing a letter of protest and paying more chose the prescription direct from the office at a premium.

So why do they do it?  Because they can.