NAVEC exists to bring competition, transparency, and public oversight to a profession whose gates are held by two private organizations. Here's the case, and the campaign.
The North American Veterinary Ethics Council (NAVEC) was founded to confront a structural problem hiding behind America's veterinary shortage: the gates into the profession are controlled by private organizations that operate without public oversight, in ways that keep the number of veterinarians low and the cost of care high. Our work is to expose how that system functions and to build the legal and policy case for reform.
Two private bodies hold the gates. A council of the AVMA — the trade association of practicing veterinarians — is the sole accreditor of U.S. veterinary schools and the gateway for internationally trained veterinarians. A private nonprofit, the ICVA, owns the single licensing exam every U.S. veterinarian must pass. Neither faces competition or meaningful public oversight. The country has had only about 34 veterinary schools for roughly 45 years, graduates just ~3,400 new veterinarians a year, and bottlenecks qualified internationally trained veterinarians to about 168 per year through a two-site, $12,804 hands-on exam.
Medicine faced the same shortage warnings and chose abundance: two competing accreditors, roughly two new schools a year, one in four physicians internationally trained, and the elimination of its own hands-on bottleneck exam. The veterinary profession could make every one of those choices. It hasn't — because the choice belongs to a monopoly.
Builds the evidence. We document how the accreditation and licensing systems restrict supply, assembling the factual record that reform — and antitrust scrutiny — requires.
Presses for public oversight. We engage legislators and the public bodies responsible for these boards to bring these private gates under public accountability, grounded in the 2015 Supreme Court principle that boards run by market participants aren't above antitrust law.
Demands transparency. We call for the national licensing exam to publish how it's built and scored, end its candidate gag rules, and submit to a genuine independent review.
Informs the public. We translate a complex, deliberately opaque system into plain terms so pet owners, farmers, and practitioners can see what's been done in their name.
NAVEC is an independent nonprofit organization. We hold no regulatory power; we advocate for transparency, competition, and public oversight of the private bodies that currently govern veterinary medicine without it.
The momentum is real: in December 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice told a federal court that veterinary accreditors "cannot erect anticompetitive hurdles" restricting the number of veterinarians. Reform is no longer a fringe idea — it's a live legal and policy question. You can be part of it: join our briefing list, add your name to the call for public oversight, and share what you've learned.
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