We all dream of making an impact and changing the world for the better. That is why so many of us volunteer at animal shelters, adopt homeless pets and donate to organizations that care for them.
Every one of those actions makes a difference. Every animal you help matters. Yet have you ever felt that, compared with what is really needed, your efforts are just a drop in the bucket?
Imagine having the chance to change the very rules that make the world so unfair to the animals we love. What if you could help save millions of animals from preventable suffering and put affordable veterinary care within reach of every family?
Would you pass up the chance?
Imagine looking at a changed world and knowing, deep inside, that you helped make it happen. A family gets care for the dog they love. A shelter can treat an animal instead of putting it down. A child who dreams of becoming a veterinarian can afford the education to get there. And you were part of what made that possible.
There are many problems in the world we cannot solve. But we believe there is one we can solve together: getting animals the veterinary care they need, at a price families can afford.
The rules keeping that care out of reach were made by people. People can change them. NAVEC has done the research and is building local groups of volunteers, called chapters, to help you act on it. You can start by telling us what happened when you tried to get care for an animal.
If you have a pet, you already know something is wrong. You call the vet and the first opening is three weeks away. The nearest animal emergency room is an hour’s drive, and the wait once you get there can run six to ten hours. If your dog needs a serious operation, the bill can hit $15,000.
People describe the consequences on NAVEC’s Facebook page.
- “We couldn’t get an appointment in the short-staffed local veterinary hospitals and clinics until it was too late.”Kelly Bailey, describing the loss of the family’s dog
- “The Vet practices here do not accept new patients because they are overwhelmed.”Lynn Moss, after moving to a rural area in Michigan
- “I have spent over $10,000 on vet bills. Think of the suffering of pets whose people can’t afford care.”Jacquelyn Paull, NAVEC Facebook commenter
Excerpts from public comments on NAVEC’s Facebook page. These are the commenters’ own accounts.
Clinic owners run job ads for years without a response. People who help clinics hire vets have reported that roughly half of jobs for emergency vets go unfilled, as documented in NAVEC’s report on the shortage.
This did not just happen
Picture a town where the plumbers decide how many plumbers the town is allowed to have. How many would they allow? And what would a plumber cost you? The people already in business would get to decide how much competition they face.
In veterinary medicine, private professional organizations control three gates: which schools can open, who passes the licensing test, and which graduates trained abroad can practice here. There is also a fourth gate: the rules the AVMA and state veterinary associations push governments to adopt or keep, limiting who may help an animal and how care can be provided.
Gate one: making schools too expensive to open
Who holds the key: the AVMA’s school-approval committee
The AVMA is a private group that speaks for veterinarians. It has a committee that approves vet schools, called the Council on Education. That approval is called accreditation.
Its rules give a broad outline of what students should learn and be able to do. But schools must also pay for research, buildings, equipment and full-time teachers in many fields. These rules make a school expensive to run. The AVMA has not shown that the added cost produces vets who are better at treating animals.
Why should a school training your town’s next veterinarian have to pay for a research operation before it can open its doors?
The average veterinary college spends about $111.8 million a year. Even with high tuition, student tuition and fees cover only about $15 of every $100 it costs to run the school. The rest must come from other sources. A school’s ability to grow depends on finding that extra money. This limits how many students it can accept, even when more people are ready to enroll and pay tuition.
Thousands of students whose lifelong dream is to become a veterinarian are turned away each year for lack of places at U.S. schools. Even talented, qualified students lose that chance.
NAVEC looked at medical schools that keep costs down and focus on teaching students to treat patients. Our experts worked out what a vet school built that way would cost. With tuition averaging about $22,500 a year, it could pay its bills, save for unexpected costs and repay the loans used to open it.
For students from modest-income homes, the report shows how college savings, financial aid, family contributions and summer earnings can cover most tuition, leaving much smaller student loans. Read the report and calculations, or see what NAVEC asked the U.S. Department of Education to change.
Sources: the school-approval standards; the 2025 veterinary-college data report; and the costs and proposed alternatives, explained.
Gate two: one test can hold back hundreds of vets
Who holds the key: the private organization that owns the test
Even a degree from an approved veterinary school is not enough. Every state requires a passing score on one national licensing test. A private organization, the International Council for Veterinary Assessment, or ICVA, owns it.
In one round of testing, more than 4,400 students in their final year at approved veterinary schools took the exam for the first time. If five more students out of every hundred failed, about 220 fewer students would pass. That is as many people as two graduating classes of 110, all held back at one exam.
Changing the scoring can change how many trained vets get through. The public could see the pass rate fall without being able to check whether the scoring was fair. Families waiting for care have a stake in that answer.
ICVA can also erase a passing score without proving the candidate did anything wrong. Everyone taking the test must sign an agreement giving it that power. They get no refund. The agreement also gives them no right to appeal the canceled score, or have ICVA review that decision.
It can decide on its own to investigate someone, even after giving them a passing score. It can demand documents, electronic records and interviews. Refuse to cooperate and it can cancel the score or bar that person from taking the exam again, with no time limit. Think what that means for someone who spots a problem. The group they would complain about controls the test they need for their career.
An independent audit means outside reviewers can examine the actual test questions, check how answers are scored and examine the results for unfair treatment. NAVEC’s review of the public record found no completed audit of that kind. California’s 2020 review examined documents supplied by ICVA, without independently examining the questions, scoring records and underlying results.
After public accusations of unfair testing and discrimination mounted, ICVA announced an “independent audit” in December 2025. ICVA says it expects completion in early 2027. It put its own law firm, Dorsey & Whitney, which represents it in legal disputes, in charge. That firm selected the auditor and manages the audit.
ICVA has not published a detailed list of what the reviewers will check. It has not promised to release their full report without cuts. VIN News asked whether ICVA could keep the findings secret by treating them as confidential work done through its lawyers. ICVA declined to answer.
This is audit theater. An announcement gives the public no way to check whether the exam is fair. That takes access to the evidence and the complete findings.
The calculation uses the 4,461 first-time senior students tested under standard conditions in November–December 2023: five percentage points equals 223 students, rounded to about 220. This illustrates the effect on first-attempt results. See ICVA’s technical report, Table 1.1; the candidate agreement and ethics policy; the investigation into the oversight gap; and ICVA’s audit announcement.
Gate three: a dream abroad, an ordeal back home
Who holds the key: the AVMA again
Some Americans go to veterinary school abroad rather than give up their dream. They earn their degrees, then discover that graduates of schools without the AVMA’s approval must prove their education is equivalent before they can practice at home.
More than 2,000 veterinarians are enrolled in the AVMA’s certification program for these graduates, known as ECFVG. The final hurdle is a three-day hands-on test costing $12,804. The fee is non-refundable. There are only about 250 first-time places a year, and the reported first-time pass rate is 25%.
Dr. Mariana Pardo earned her veterinary degree in Chile. She went on to train at the University of Georgia, the University of Florida and Cornell, becoming a certified specialist in emergency and critical care. She was already working as a specialist before she could complete the AVMA’s program for proving that a veterinarian trained abroad was ready to begin practice. The process took her twelve years.
With so few exam places available, you would expect a waiting list, or at least an announced date and time when registration would open. For years, the program provided neither a waiting list nor a reliable calendar. Places appeared with minimal advance notice and were snapped up in minutes. Candidates were left repeatedly checking the website, afraid to miss their chance.
Imagine spending months like that: sitting at a computer, refreshing the screen, wondering whether stepping away to work, sleep or care for your child will cost you the opening you have been waiting for. Your career is on hold. You cannot plan your future. Even getting a place in line depends on catching the right moment. That is avoidable psychological torment.
This was an abusive way to treat trained professionals. A system like this looks designed to wear people down until they give up. The AVMA should answer why it kept candidates in that position for years. A waiting list finally replaced the scramble in 2025.
Once a candidate pays, even a family emergency does not make the fee refundable. Travel, preparation and retakes cost extra.
The AVMA says its hands-on exam, the Clinical Proficiency Examination, or CPE, measures the skills expected of a newly graduated veterinarian from one of its approved schools.
The only problem is that this claim is transparently false. Compare the schools’ published graduation requirements with the AVMA’s exam manual. The test demands procedures those schools do not require every student to master. That is how we know: the two published standards do not match.
At Cornell, horse medicine and surgery are elective clinical rotations. Students preparing to treat dogs and cats follow a different path from those preparing to treat horses.
Yet every candidate must pass the exam’s horse section: examining teeth and filing upper cheek teeth by hand, examining the feet and limbs, and assessing movement for lameness. Candidates must also explain how to perform a rectal examination safely and describe its complications. In another section, they must examine a cow for pregnancy by rectal palpation, with just three minutes of palpation time.
Performing these procedures safely on large, powerful animals takes hands-on training.
Show the exam requirements to the vet who treats your dog or cat. Ask: “Did your school require you to perform all of these procedures to graduate? Could every new graduate safely pass this exam?”
The horse section is one of seven that every candidate must pass. The AVMA’s school standards do not require every graduate to perform that same collection of procedures. Presenting these as the same standard is a false equivalence.
This is an integrity and trust issue. The association making the claim also approves the schools. State boards rely on its assurance to decide who may practice. If its own standards contradict that assurance, why should we trust it to control entry into the profession?
Thousands of trained veterinarians, including U.S. citizens and green card holders, face these barriers. These citizens and permanent residents have the right to live and work here but lack permission to practice veterinary medicine. Some are waiting in the program; others never apply because of the cost, delays and double standard.
A fair route into supervised practice could put these trained people to work without waiting years for another class of students to graduate.
Read False Equivalency and its source-linked report; compare Cornell’s clinical pathways with the exam manual. See Dr. Pardo’s first-person account, the fee and refund rules and the waitlist announcement.
Gate four: making it illegal to help
Who shapes the rules: the AVMA and state veterinary associations
The first three gates determine how many veterinarians can get through. The fourth limits what people already willing and able to help are allowed to do. In many states, rules block lower-cost care by limiting what shelters, online vets and other trained people can do. Even a shelter with a licensed veterinarian can run into it.
State governments make these rules. The AVMA supplies a suggested rulebook for states to use, called a model practice act. State veterinary associations press officials to adopt or keep particular rules. NAVEC’s report Illegal to Help follows that record through restrictions on charity clinics, vaccinations, remote care and other ways to reach animals who are going without.
A shelter has a vet. The family still cannot get help.
Picture a shelter with a licensed veterinarian, an exam room and a family whose dog has an ear infection. The family cannot afford the private clinic’s bill. The shelter is willing to help.
Rules can limit which families a shelter vet is allowed to help. Under one such rule, a shelter can spay that dog but cannot treat its ear infection unless the family is poor enough to qualify for help. The rule allows emergency care, but families seeking routine treatment can be turned away.
The veterinarian’s qualifications have not changed. The animal’s need has not changed. The family’s income decides whether the shelter can help.
NAVEC’s report follows fights across the country over who nonprofit clinics can treat, what care they can give and where they can work. Staff at the Federal Trade Commission, which works to protect fair competition, have warned that limits on these clinics can mean fewer choices and higher prices.
The same rabies shot. Very different rules.
In many states, rabies shots must be given by a vet or under a vet’s supervision. Some rules require the vet to be there in person. A shelter can have the vaccine and a trained person ready to give it, yet still have to wait for the veterinarian. These rules are documented in the report’s rabies case file.
North Carolina shows another way. The local public health director can approve a trained person to give rabies shots. That person must have at least four hours of training and show they can do the job properly. Once approved, they can give the shots to animals in the county.
A charity clinic must stay out of sight.
One rule goes even further. It covers mobile vet clinics, which travel to reach animals. A clinic linked to, run by or supported by a nonprofit shelter cannot operate where it can be seen from the nearest private vet clinic.
Think about what that measures. The rule does not ask whether the mobile clinic’s vet is qualified or whether its care is safe. It asks whether a private practice can see it.
A veterinarian helps by email. The board stops him.
In many states, a vet must examine a pet in person before starting its care online. Even a vet who gives simple advice can face punishment.
Dr. Ron Hines, a retired and physically disabled Texas veterinarian, advised pet owners remotely. The state disciplined him for giving advice without first examining the animals in person.
In 2024, a federal appeals court ruled in his favor, finding that the state had not justified applying that restriction to his advice. The court noted that the state’s expert, a former AVMA president, could not identify a single animal harmed by his emails.
The AVMA and the state veterinary association then asked the Supreme Court to take up the state’s appeal, defending the in-person examination requirement. A veterinarian willing to help from his computer had to spend years fighting for the right to do it.
On April 20, 2026, the Supreme Court refused to hear the state’s appeal. That left Hines’s victory in place. His challenge succeeded.
These rules can be challenged. People have already done it.
In 2024, Colorado voters approved a new role for trained workers who can treat animals with a licensed vet supervising them. That gives clinics a way to have more people providing care. The AVMA contributed about $2.31 million to the campaign opposing it. Voters approved it anyway. NAVEC’s report links the records of that spending and the vote result.
Changing these rules takes different routes: a court challenge, a public vote, or a request to the state board that writes the rules. Hines’s case shows that a restriction can be defeated. The Wisconsin story below shows a first step you can take through a local chapter: bring a documented problem and a specific request to a public meeting.
NAVEC provides the research. A local chapter helps you prepare the request and attend together. You can start by sharing what happened when you tried to get care for an animal, or by helping a neighbor bring that experience to the board.
Read Illegal to Help and the full source-linked report, especially the sections on rabies shots, charity clinics, online care and trained workers who treat animals under a vet’s supervision. Rules and exceptions vary by state. The report links the exact wording for each example.
What one person did with five minutes
Dr. Sarah Lautzenhiser owns a veterinary clinic in Antigo, a small town in northern Wisconsin.
In July she asked for five minutes at a public meeting of the Wisconsin board that licenses veterinarians and sent one NAVEC report ahead of time. She asked the board to let vets trained abroad work with a licensed vet supervising them while they waited to complete the required checks of their training. She also asked the board to get a written promise that Wisconsin would receive the full report from the outside reviewers examining the licensing test.
After she spoke, the board kept discussing the issues:
- Members discussed changing rules that shut out veterinarians trained in other countries.
- Members talked about drawing up a list of questions for the owner of the test.
- One of them asked whether the state would get the review results unedited. The board agreed to ask for the full results.
The board listened when a local clinic owner brought it facts and specific requests.
One person. Five minutes. One report. Now a state board is asking the questions.
Sarah is a veterinarian, but you do not need her professional credentials to tell a public board what happens when your family cannot get care. Veterinary boards hold public meetings across the country. Join a local NAVEC chapter to help prepare a short statement, bring the research and attend together.
The Wisconsin account is based on Sarah’s report of the discussion. The July 28, 2026 meeting agenda lists the approval process for vets trained abroad and the outside review of the licensing test.
Why would anyone hold the doors shut?
Think of an old-fashioned trade guild, where the people already in a profession control who else gets in. The AVMA’s record follows that pattern: more veterinarians are treated as a threat to the profession’s income.
For 50 years, five of the AVMA’s studies have warned that America would have too many vets. Each was wrong. It still predicts too many by 2030. The old fear of too much competition survives even when clinics cannot hire help.
Doctors who treat people have a different system. An independent organization checks the qualifications of doctors trained abroad, and far more complete that process each year.
In December 2025, the U.S. Department of Justice told a federal court that groups like the AVMA “cannot erect anticompetitive hurdles,” meaning barriers that keep competitors out and hold down the number of veterinarians.
Read the fifty-year forecast record, how the AVMA’s guild structure works, and the Justice Department filing.
Your vet did not do this
Picture an old-fashioned union hall: members pay dues while a small group of insiders sets policy. At the AVMA, representatives from state veterinary associations and other professional groups make those decisions. Its rulebook lets regular members vote for certain officers “and no other matter.”
Your veterinarian never got a vote on these rules. She is short on staff and worn out, and she cannot hire help either. The organization speaks in her name while keeping those decisions out of her hands.
Veterinarians are speaking up too. On NAVEC’s Facebook page, Kai Dahlin described the barriers as “insane obstacle courses to prevent obviously qualified foreign vets from practicing here in the US.”
What gun owners figured out
Whatever you think of the National Rifle Association, its members know how to get officials’ attention. Hunters, target shooters and people who keep a gun at home organize around a shared interest. Through state associations and local clubs, they show up when rules affecting them are discussed.
The NRA claims about 5 million members, a small fraction of America’s gun owners. A small group that shows up beats a big group that stays home.
There are 94 million American homes with a pet, more than have a gun. If one in twenty joined together, we would be about as big as the NRA.
The AVMA has been organized for more than 160 years. Pet owners, shelter volunteers, farmers and clinic owners need a voice where these decisions are made. We all need enough veterinarians to care for our animals.
And we do not need millions to start. Wisconsin took one.
What a local chapter is
A NAVEC chapter is a small group in one state that shares the facts with neighbors and brings local experiences to public board meetings. It can start at a kitchen table.
NAVEC can help your group prepare a written request asking the veterinary board to change a specific rule it has the power to change. Your group can also ask the state’s top lawyer, the attorney general, to investigate evidence of wrongdoing. NAVEC helps you identify the right office and bring the research that supports the request.
The seven kinds of people we need
Anyone can join. There is no fee involved. Choose a way to help.
A pet owner with a story
You waited weeks, drove hours, or faced a bill you couldn’t pay. Maybe there is no vet for your horses or cattle.
What you would do: Host a meetup at home, a library or a community hall. We supply a short talk with the facts; you invite your neighbors.
A shelter or rescue volunteer
You see cancelled surgeries, delayed adoptions and veterinary jobs nobody applies for.
What you would do: Help your shelter, rescue or club join a local NAVEC group. Collect examples of animals waiting for treatment and explain what those delays mean for your shelter.
A clinic owner who can’t hire
You’re turning clients away or thinking about selling because you cannot find another veterinarian.
What you would do: Tell your board how long you’ve been trying to hire and what it means for your patients. Sarah’s experience shows why your voice matters.
A trained vet stuck in line
You trained in another country and are waiting for a test seat, or the cost and rules have kept you from applying.
What you would do: Tell your state board about your training and your willingness to work. If you have faced testing or licensing problems, ask NAVEC to contact you through our form for vets facing licensing problems. You can make first contact without sharing sensitive documents.
Someone with a curious mind
You like research and can commit time to a project.
What you would do: Read the agenda for your state board’s next meeting, check a fact against its source or collect local stories. We’ll show you how.
A lawyer, professor or other expert
You know law, economics, fair testing, public policy or veterinary medicine.
What you would do: Review our work, advise local groups or help them ask boards to change rules and state officials to investigate wrongdoing. Help design fair ways to approve schools, test graduates and evaluate veterinarians trained abroad.
Someone who can help fund the mission
NAVEC is a new nonprofit working to transform veterinary medicine across all 50 states. Financial support pays for research and getting these facts to the public. It also helps develop better ways to train vets, test their skills and check their qualifications, with results the public can see.
Small contributions: A modest monthly gift helps keep this work going. Donate to NAVEC →
Larger gifts and introductions to donors: If you can sponsor a project or connect us with people or foundations that can, start a funding conversation. We can discuss specific projects and what your support would fund.
How to get involved
- Choose your interests in the volunteer form. To build a chapter, select Help organize a chapter in my state.
- NAVEC reviews your interests and contacts you about a role or project. You can also ask us to introduce you to the person organizing a chapter in your state.
- Tell us how you’d like to help and what time you can commit. We’ll help you choose a role and get started.
Quick answers
Do I need experience? No. We provide the facts and help you get started.
How much time does it take? It depends on the role. Some volunteers take on a specific project; others help build and run a chapter. What matters is making a commitment you can keep.
Is there a fee to join? Anyone can join. There is no fee involved.
Can I help financially? Yes. Donate online for a small contribution, or use our funding form if you would like to pay for a specific project or introduce us to a possible donor.
I trained in another country and I am afraid to speak up. What should I do? Use our form for vets facing licensing problems to ask NAVEC to contact you. Filling it out does not give us permission to publish your name or story.
Figures and supporting documents are linked above and in NAVEC’s published research. The Wisconsin account comes from Sarah’s report of the July 28, 2026 discussion. Facebook quotations are excerpts from public comments.
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