Pet owners pay price for vets’ closure
Hundreds of pet owners across the city will face expensive veterinary bills after a surgery offering free treatment announced it is to close.
More than 200 families on low incomes or benefits have been able to get their animals treated for free at the Howard veterinary surgeries at Hall Road and St Faith’s Lane.
But the only vets in the city which operates the PetAid scheme funded by the PDSA, which provides free treatment for one pet for clients on benefits, is to close at the end of March.
Susan Howard, who has run the family-owned practice for more than 20 years, said: “We have had over 260 clients on the scheme last year and have had to inform PDSA clients whose registration is up for renewal that we can’t renew it.
“This is very distressing for them, especially for those whose pets are on long-term treatment. We had hoped the PDSA would be able to get one of the other Norwich practices to take on the scheme, but so far they’ve had no success. We’re very concerned about what will happen to these clients and their pets.”
Miss Howard will be turning the Hall Road surgery into a neutering clinic after the practice closes at the end of March, but she will not be doing any veterinary treatments or out-of-hours emergency work.
She would love to see another city vet take on the PetAid scheme and to ensure people on low incomes or benefits have somewhere to go.
“The only alternative would be to expand and take on an assistant again, but the amount of legislation imposed on small businesses now, especially on veterinary practices makes this unattractive,” she said.
Fiona Watts, who has been taking pets to Miss Howard’s surgery, was not a member of the PetAid scheme.
But she said: “I really hope another vet in the city can offer the scheme to help those who were members.
“Otherwise there will be no PDSA scheme in the area for people on low incomes to have help with taking their animals to the vets.”
PDSA, the UK’s leading veterinary charity, provides free veterinary treatment to more than 4,650 sick and injured animals every single day.