Colorado pet owners bark about the high — and rising — cost of caring for their companions

Richard Charles and Amy Adams sat in their truck queued up with dozens of others awaiting a slow roll through the meandering line at an outdoor pet pantry, a pop-up operation in the parking lot of a food bank in southwest Denver. 

One by one, more than a hundred vehicles opened their trunks or hatchbacks to accept free donated dog and cat food, plus other accessories of pet ownership — part of a program fueled by Colorado Pet Pantry that brings relief to 103 locations across the state. Charles and Adams, who live in nearby Englewood, registered with a volunteer to take advantage of the monthly event, though visitors are only eligible for the free food every other month. 

Still, it’s a budget buffer against the sledgehammer costs of pet ownership, especially during the lean days for these seasonal food workers who cater festivals and farmer’s markets. Food and veterinary care, they estimate, run them roughly $5,000 a year — and that’s just basics aside from any unforeseen issues. 

The expenses are challenging, but like many Coloradans, they would rather do without small luxuries such as dining out — or even extra portions of their home-cooked meals — to provide for the two dogs and five cats that are more than just pets or companions.

“Before the (work) season starts, we definitely have to prioritize,” Charles says, noting that savings from the previous season can run low. “And they get the priority. They’re part of us. Part of our family.”

“Our kids,” Adams adds.

LEFT: Around a dozen Colorado Pet Pantry volunteers distribute free pet food and supplies via a drive-thru Dec. 21 in west Denver. RIGHT ABOVE: Cathy Hamlin, the owner of two dogs, a Basenji and Doodle mix, talks with volunteer Kimberly McNealy. RIGHT BELOW: Gary Gonzales, right, stands with his dogs, Woody, a Chihuahua mix and Sabrina, a Siberian husky. Each monthly donation drive typically draws more than 100 clients from the metro area. (Photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

The couple are anything but outliers in a state that loves its pets. Poll after poll reveals Colorado’s love affair with its (mostly) dogs and cats — including one that ranks the state highest on a seven-point survey with regard to residents’ devotion to their canine companions. Some of the results revealed attitudes impacted by economics: 43.5% said they would spend $4,000 or more to save their dog’s life; and 11% said they’d stayed at a job they didn’t like because it was dog-friendly.

But it’s getting harder to absorb the costs that come with those pets that mean so much to so many Coloradans. And the problem extends across the country. And while precise costs can vary even from one ZIP code to another, the overall impact is consistent. Consider one survey that found 91% of respondents have felt some degree of stress over the costs of pet care, with two-thirds reporting that, like Charles and Adams, they have cut back on personal spending to accommodate their pets. One-third have sought to ease the crunch by taking a second job or exploring other ways to increase their income.

One analysis ranked Colorado 37th in annual expenses for dog ownership at $1,568.72, covering food, pet insurance, veterinarian office visits and vaccines plus spay/neuter. Prices can vary widely depending on a number of variables, but virtually all the analysis and surveys done on pet care — and there are a lot — point to a common theme: It ain’t getting cheaper.

In July of 2021, total pet-related costs hovered slightly below the national Consumer Price Index, which measures the average change in prices paid by urban consumers for a variety of goods. By July of 2023, not only had the CPI risen 19%, but total pet costs had surpassed the index by nearly 3 percentage points. Food and veterinary costs, in particular, had spiked — with food nearly 4 percentage points higher than the CPI and veterinary care nearly 9 percentage points higher.

Eileen Lambert, who founded Colorado Pet Pantry in 2013, notes the rapid rise in the numbers of dogs and cats served since its inception, when it helped feed 858 pets. And she says that while part of the increase reflects the organization’s overall expansion, the exponential explosion — in 2023 the nonprofit served an estimated 150,000 animals — also tells a story about the intersection of high costs and greater need.

And at the same time pet food prices have spiked, she adds, it has also become harder for her to obtain the surplus food that manufacturers often donate for reasons ranging from torn or mislabeled packaging to imminent “best by” dates. Although Colorado Pet Pantry doesn’t purchase pet food to distribute, that could change as donations scale back — in part, Lambert says, because the pandemic led manufacturers to discover efficiencies that result in less surplus product.

“The need is exceptionally high right now,” she says. “We’re seeing about 50% more people coming this year than we did last year because the cost of living is so high.” 

In large part the problem for pet owners is that food costs have outstripped the usual inflation-driven average. Last April, Veterinarians.org, a pet research and publishing organization, analyzed price histories for 100 of the top wet and dry dog foods among Amazon Bestsellers and found that on average, prices were up 45.5% compared with 2020. The roughly 15% annual increase was three times higher than the usual bump.

More than half of those surveyed said they’d canceled pet food subscriptions that automatically refill and deliver orders. Nearly a quarter of respondents found the economics so daunting that they at least thought about rehoming their pet or surrendering it to a shelter.

Michael Meyer, CEO of the I and Love and You “ultra premium” pet food brand based in Boulder, says that inflation impacted food prices — animal or human — inordinately owing to multiple factors: cost of ingredients, labor costs, interest rates, fuel costs and others. But the good news, he adds, is that after spikes in 2022 and ’23, costs seem to be leveling off.

“And I think we’re seeing a leveling off on people food as well,” he says. “So for all of our brands, it’s about navigating that and how do we manage that together? Because we want to make sure our food continues to be affordable. It’s premium, but it has to be affordable at the same time.”

The I and Love and You brand — yes, music aficionados, the name was inspired by the Avett Brothers song of the same name — is one of the companies that have partnered with Colorado Pet Pantry as a means of giving back. But it has also employed other strategies in the marketplace, such as packaging cat food in 12-packs at a discounted price and offering dry dog food in bags up to 23 pounds rather than 4 pounds.

“We’re looking at our cost structure now and talking about one line of products where we’re exploring reducing prices,” Meyer says. “We’re going to absorb some of that on our own, but we’re doing what we think is the right thing to do. Obviously we still have a business to run and you have to have balance. But I hope prices come down. They’ve definitely leveled off.” 

Cathy Hamlin, 65 and newly retired on Supplemental Security Income, drove to the pet pantry from Englewood to collect some food for Rihanna, her Labradoodle, and Chappie, her Basenji and Australian cattle dog mix (she did the DNA test). She can split a big salad with her 5-year-old iguana, but the dog food strains her budget.

“Your money doesn’t go up but the food prices do — same as humans,” she said. “Every time I get a bag of dog food it’s a couple bucks more. You know, it’s crazy.” 

Veterinary care

The waiting areas at the veterinary hospital — one devoted to cats, one to dogs — filled with a steady stream of clients on a crisp Saturday morning as two workers, one of them slipping easily between English and Spanish, welcomed the animals and their caretakers.

Catherine Lopez, 19, settled into a chair while Pabu, a 4-month-old male Chihuahua, curled up in her lap. They discovered an oasis of low-cost veterinary care in this sparkling facility tucked between the low-income Globeville and Elyria-Swansea neighborhoods of Denver — a haven of relief from the burden of caring for the newest addition to Lopez’s family.

The Dumb Friends League Veterinary Hospital at CSU Spur, near the Stockyards Events Center, offers a wide variety of donor-subsidized services — everything from urgent care to surgery to spay and neuter procedures to the reason that has brought Lopez.

Pabu, just adopted from a family friend, was due for his first round of vaccinations. Lopez, who finds herself at the intersection of the housing crisis — she lives with her dad while working in human resources for a construction company — and rising costs of pet care, budgets about $200 a month to feed and otherwise look after both Pabu and her 2-year-old cat, Nyx.

“To give them the best care possible so that they have a long life is kind of challenging,” she said, “especially when it comes down to food because food has gone up — especially food that’s beneficial for them, it’s kind of expensive. And for my cat the litter is expensive. The treats are expensive.”

Everything, it seems, is expensive.

When the attendant called Pabu’s name, Lopez carried him to an exam room where, in short order, vet techs administered the vaccinations and Lopez proceeded to a check-out area. She pulled out her credit card to pay the $25 charge — significantly less than she might pay at most private vet clinics.

Part of the reason the DFL set up the facility here is that it sits in the midst of a “veterinary desert,” says Rachel Heatley, director of advocacy for the organization. It seemed like an area where they could make a big difference, and 18 months after its opening, the response has confirmed that.

“We open at 7 a.m. every day by 7:30, our day is completely full,” Heatley says. “And that is every single day that we’re open. So there is need there, and there’s need specifically for the subsidized care that we provide.” 

Other data underscores the impacts of pet health care. When Colorado State University launched The Animal-Human Policy Center last spring, it dove into two detailed surveys: One asked more than 700 veterinary professionals for their perspectives on providing care and workforce challenges; the other polled pet owners to explore barriers to care.

LEFT: Patients and their pets wait Dec. 30 at the Dumb Friends League Veterinary Hospital at CSU Spur. RIGHT: Matt Martin, associate vet, performs spay or neuter operations on a cat. (Photos by Olivia Sun, The Colorado Sun via Report for America)

“From some of our conversations with policymakers and stakeholders here in Colorado,” says Rebecca Niemiec, the center’s director, “one of the first things that rose to the top as a key animal-human challenge is this issue of access to veterinary care and ensuring that people can care for their pets in the way that they would like to.”

The survey results didn’t define the rising expense of companion animals in dollars and cents, but it often saw those costs reflected in the responses — for instance, the prevalence of something known as “economic euthanasia.” The survey revealed: 

• 72% of veterinarians and technicians reported their team has had to euthanize an animal in the past year because the owner couldn’t afford recommended treatment — a choice they would not have made if they’d had greater financial resources.
• 55% of vets/techs said that, on average, at least once a week they’d had to decline care for animals because of the caretakers’ inability to pay.
• 57% of those responding said inadequate access to veterinary care is a moderate or significant problem in their practice area.

Pet owners’ responses defined the economic difficulties even more sharply, most notably among the nearly 300 respondents surveyed at pet food pantries and shelters for low-cost veterinary services:

• About 28% of respondents said they’d had to give away one of their pets to another person or a shelter, most often citing the costs of veterinary care as the reason.
• About 14% had never taken their pet to a veterinarian, again citing expense as the reason.
• And roughly 51% reported trying — unsuccessfully — to access veterinary care over the past two years. Unaffordable costs and unavailable appointments were the most common reasons given.

“One thing that is important to highlight here is we did find 8% of pet owners have never obtained veterinary care,” Niemiec says, “and for those pet owners, a veterinarian being too expensive was the primary reason why they had never obtained veterinary care.” 

On top of that, 28% of pet owners had experienced a time in the past two years when they’d tried to see a veterinarian but couldn’t, most commonly citing no available appointments, clinics not being open at times they could come in and, of course, high costs.

Lower-cost options like SpayToday — a Lakewood specialty clinic that focuses on spay/neuter, vaccinations and microchips — uses donor funds to keep their prices affordable or in some cases free. Their philosophy leans into the idea that the human-animal bond is crucial to a healthy community, especially among the most vulnerable populations.

“Those pets are an integral part of their family and help with their own mental health,” says Amira Watters, the executive director. “So it’s really heartbreaking if somebody has to decide: Do I feed my kids or do I get vaccinations for my pet?”

Even operations like SpayToday are at the mercy of market forces for vaccines, anesthesia drugs and other medications. For instance, Watters says, the cost of a heartworm test has doubled. “And so we really have no other choice,” she adds. “There’s only so many vendors that provide them. So it’s a challenge for sure.”

Rachel Heatley, director of advocacy for the Dumb Friends League, sees the impact of veterinary costs in her own home. Her cat suffers from kidney disease and asthma, and she pays about $500 every two months for medication. And that’s going the discount route through a Canadian pharmacy. She estimates those same drugs would cost her over $1,000 in the U.S.

“Which I cannot afford,” she says.

Heatley says veterinary costs are similar for dogs and cats, though with most cats being on the smaller side, that alone can reduce costs somewhat. Another consideration when it comes to expenses, she adds, is longevity. Pet owners who take full advantage of veterinary care — and Colorado’s tendency to treat their animals as family members is well documented — can also naturally count on a longer timeline of costs.

“How lucky we are to live at a time where we have such great veterinary medicine,” Heatley says. “But that is a double-edged sword because now there are all of these opportunities to help your animals — but they’re highly unaffordable for the majority of people. So those people are still facing the very difficult decision of turning over their animal to a shelter or a family friend, or opting for economic euthanasia.”

The worrisome shortage of vets

Driving some of the concerns about availability of veterinary care is a projected shortage of both veterinarians and techs. A study released in August estimated that by 2030, the U.S. will need up to 55,000 additional veterinarians and tens of thousands of veterinary nurses and techs to meet the demand for services to companion animals.

A move to create a new mid-level position — a veterinary equivalent to a physician’s assistant in human medicine that could perform certain procedures — as one means of increasing access to care so far hasn’t found legislative support in Colorado. (The president of the American Veterinary Medical Association has pushed back on the idea of a projected veterinarian shortage, blaming COVID for disrupting the usual supply and demand, and has opposed the idea of a mid-level position.) 

Veterinary care can notably be even harder to access in rural portions of the state. Anecdotally, the Dumb Friends League needed two years to fill a position in its Alamosa clinic and a year and a half to find a vet tech.

CSU’s Niemiec notes that while much of their Colorado survey results mirrored national findings, there was one area of wide discrepancy: pet insurance. For instance, one national study found 4% of dogs are covered, while in the CSU study 25% of Colorado respondents said they carried pet insurance.

“Maybe there is something unique about Colorado,” she says, “but that’s still like 75% of people who don’t have insurance. When we ask them why, the most common reason selected was they can’t afford the monthly cost, followed by they don’t think it’s worth the monthly costs, and then followed by, they haven’t heard about it or don’t know enough.”

Does pet insurance make sense for you? Forbes Advisor listed the monthly cost for a range of seven providers for plans with $5,000 annual coverage maximum, a $250 deductible and 90% reimbursement level.

Other barriers to pet ownership

Other expenses associated with keeping a pet can be embedded in the cost of rental housing. The Dumb Friends League notes that the number one reason animals are brought to the shelter has to do with housing situations — specifically, finding pet friendly housing that’s also affordable. Security deposits and other fees charged to tenants with pets can combine with the usual expenses to force some pet owners to surrender the animals.

“People are facing insurmountable costs when they want to move with their pets,” said DFL’s Heatley. “Finding pet friendly housing that is also affordable is out of this world. And so as a result, we end up with a lot of those pets.” 

The issue attracted legislative attention, which resulted in a law that went into effect Jan. 1 limiting pet security deposits to $300 and additional pet fees to $35 or 1.5% of the rent, whichever is greater. 

At the Colorado Pet Pantry event in southwest Denver, founder Lambert watched 63 clients cycle through the line in the first 40 minutes, heading toward the usual total of between 100 and 150. On average, each client cares for three animals, with about a 2-to-1 ratio of dogs to cats. On this day, the nonprofit distributed about 4,000 pounds of pet food.

Inching forward in the line of vehicles, Richard Charles framed the reason behind his search for affordable pet care in the simplest terms: “One of my favorite parts about being alive,” he says, “is having dogs and cats.”

Design by Danika Worthington.

References:

"July 2023 Update: Petflation Slows, Remains More Than Twice National CPI," Pet Age, Aug. 25, 2023. Source link

"Price estimator," Banfield Pet Hospital, Accessed January 2024. Source link

"Best Pet Insurance In Colorado 2024," Ashley Kilroy, Forbes Advisor, Jan. 3, 2024. Source link

"Pet Ownership Statistics 2024," Michelle Megna, Forbes Advisor, Jan. 2, 2024. Source link

"Survey: 91% of dog owners have experienced financial stress over the cost of pet ownership," Heidi Gollub and Jennifer Lobb, USA Today, Nov. 9, 2023. Source link

"The Cost of Owning a Dog by State," Pettable, Aug. 31, 2023. Source link

"The Rising Cost of Dog Food," Veterinarians.org, Jan. 5, 2024. Source link

"Supplemental Security Income," Social Security Administration, May 2023. Source link

"Colorado Veterinary Professional Survey: Summary of Results," Animal-Human Policy Center, 2023. Source link

"Colorado Pet Owners Survey on Access to Veterinary Care: Summary of Results," Animal-Human Policy Center, 2023. Source link

"Pet Healthcare in the U.S.: Another Look at the Veterinarian Workforce," James W. Lloyd, Animal Health Economics, Aug. 1, 2023. Source link

Dateline:

Denver

Type of Story: News

Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.