20 Pet Products Reviewers Say Were Recommended By Groomers
Regular Vets Depart After New Owner Takes Over Animal Hospital
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The veterinarians of Bramer Animal Hospital, 1021 Davis St., had been fixtures for Evanston's pet families for many years. Under the direction of longtime owner Dr. Jim Hagedorn, the vets and other care and support staff often saw clients through the entire life of a pet – and in some cases, more than one.
"They have been one of the predominant neighborhood vets for a very long time," said Tammy Dorward, a longtime Bramer client. "And you never used to hear about vets leaving the practice."
That consistency has been upended.
A RoundTable investigation found that since Hagedorn retired in December 2021, all five other veterinarians have left Bramer to work at other Chicagoland animal hospitals, and Bramer appears to have not hired any new permanent vets to take their places.
Although a message to clients indicates the practice is now employing "relief doctors," Bramer has had at least five sporadic, single-day closures since July.
At the same time, clients have started leaving more negative reviews and complaints on websites like Yelp, Google Reviews and Nextdoor. Many cite increased difficulty scheduling appointments, obtaining prescriptions and even getting hold of someone when calling the office.
Bramer began restricting comments on its Facebook page on Sept. 29, and in an Oct. 4 email obtained by the RoundTable, Hospital Manager Bianca Pillay told clients that "any display of inappropriate language, or disrespectful behavior" toward the practice's staff would result in clients being "asked to leave the practice."
"We would like to retain all of our clients however we hope everyone understands that we must also protect our staff and our doctors' emotional wellbeing," Pillay wrote. "The staff is doing their best under these challenging circumstances and we sincerely request your patience, grace and understanding."
The RoundTable sent multiple requests for comment via email to Pillay and the hospital's new owner, National Veterinary Associates. NVA did not respond, and Pillay replied to the RoundTable that she was not allowed to do so. She did not respond to a request for direct NVA contacts.
"I am aware of your earnest attempt to connect with any management staff at Bramer Animal Hospital and wanted to share that I am not able/authorized to discuss anything regarding the recent changes at the hospital," Pillay wrote.
Many of the negative reviews point blame at NVA, a conglomerate of around 1,400 local veterinary practices and other pet-care facilities, which is itself owned by JAB Holding Co., a German private equity conglomerate with billions of dollars of investments in a wide variety of industries.
Dorward, who is now switching to a different practice, also blames the new owners for the Bramer vets' exodus.
"Whoever bought the practice couldn't keep the doctors happy enough to keep them there," Dorward said. "They've driven this practice into the ground."
Dorward is skeptical of the motivation behind the Oct. 4 email.
"[The email is] basically chastising everyone for wanting answers and saying, 'We're gonna throw you out of the practice if you raise your voice when you come in,'" Dorward said. "But there's been no personal accountability to say, 'We know that things are rough right now. Let us tell you what we're doing, let us tell you the steps we're taking.'"
Pet care meets private equity"Private equity" is ownership stake in a company that isn't publicly traded; its counterpart, "public equity," is better known as the stock market. Many private equity investment groups have an expansive scope of industries in their portfolios, targeting everything from car washes and dentist's offices to apartment buildings and mobile home parks.
JAB Holding, for example, has ownership or controlling stakes of food and drink brands Keurig, Dr. Pepper, Krispy Kreme and Panera Bread; cosmetics giant Coty, which owns CoverGirl and partners with brands like Gucci and Calvin Klein; and, since 2019, veterinary consolidators like Compassion-First Pet Hospitals and National Veterinary Associates.
Dr. Charlotte Lacroix, a New Jersey-based veterinarian and attorney who provides legal and financial advice to vets as CEO of Veterinary Business Advisors, said there was a private equity "feeding frenzy" in veterinary medicine from around 2019 to 2022, with investor groups "paying amazing prices for privately owned practices" across the country.
She said it's an "industry ripe for consolidation" by corporate owners, in which expenses in management, supplies, equipment and service contracts are reduced by a common corporate owner making purchases in bulk for numerous practices.
"From an investor's perspective, it's a great market," Lacroix said. "There's [relatively] no liability, your money is hardly at risk because people continue to spend, and we have a significant shortage of veterinarians and labor. I mean, there's a big gap between supply and demand."
Private equity's targeting of pet care caught the attention of the podcast Freakonomics Radio, which released two episodes on the topic in January 2023. In the first of these episodes, NVA's former CEO and current board chairman Greg Hartmann called the veterinary sector "highly, highly fragmented" and said this environment means NVA can't "win by cutting costs."
"Any one of our hospitals in a local market is typically in competition with anywhere from a few to a half-dozen or more other local hospitals, where most of them are still independent," Hartmann said to Freakonomics host Stephen Dubner. "The price competition in any local marketplace is very well established and really can be quite intense. We certainly don't view price increases as a way of enabling or justifying the investment in a hospital."
Industry experts estimate that around 25% of all companion animal practices in the U.S. Were corporate-owned in December 2021, and that these practices capture just under half of the revenue in the veterinary hospital industry.
From doctor- to corporate-ownedBramer itself is very well established, particularly with the long tenure of previous owner Hagedorn.
In text messages to the RoundTable, Hagedorn wrote he began working at Bramer in 1985 as an associate veterinarian and later purchased the practice in 1994. He owned and led Bramer as a practicing vet for the next quarter-century, during which all five of the now-former doctors joined the practice, according to social media posts and archives of the Bramer website.
Leah Brennan, a Bramer client for some 20 years, lauded the practice and said her experience has "always been great."
"Everybody at the reception, and all the techs, and then obviously the vets, were always friendly," Brennan said. "And we never felt like they were upselling us or ignoring us either. I mean, it was just really a nice place to bring your pet."
Hagedorn wrote that he sold Bramer to NVA in July 2020, and later retired from management and veterinary practice in December 2021 "due to a number of health issues." He added he began negotiations with NVA in 2019 after a few years of researching and interviewing potential buyers, and that he "did not see any reason" to wait until retirement to find a buyer when he could do so ahead of time.
"Their [NVA's] reputation at this time for taking care of the practice, giving a fair deal to me and caring for the clients and staff of the hospital were the best I could hope for," Hagedorn wrote. "I believe that at that time my staff understood my concerns and needs, and I believed that this group could carry the practice and its staff and clients to a high standard of care for both in the future."
Today, Bramer's official business filings with the Illinois Secretary of State list its entity name as "NVA Bramer Veterinary Management, LP," though the assumed name is still "Bramer Animal Hospital." The company's designated office is the same address as NVA's headquarters in Agoura Hills, California, and the filings name no individual person as a manager or agent.
Bramer's official business filings with the Illinois Secretary of State. Credit: Illinois Secretary of State The doctors' departures When Hagedorn retired in December 2021, there were five permanent veterinarians working either full-time or part-time at Bramer, according to an archived copy of Bramer's website from January 2022. By October 2023, all five had left for other practices, and Bramer's "Our Doctors" webpage was blank.
Through online research and phone calls to the practices, the RoundTable confirmed the five doctors' new employers:
The RoundTable left messages for the doctors at each practice asking to speak with them for this story, but none responded. Because of this, and because Pillay and NVA did not provide comment, the RoundTable does not have any information on why the five veterinarians left Bramer for other practices.
Lacroix, the veterinary adviser, said in her general experience in the industry, most corporate consolidators are hands-off with workplace culture and medical protocols, and allow practices to stay "pretty autonomous." She said disruptions to culture and practices more frequently come from the departure of a longtime owner, which can create a "huge vacuum" in the workplace that the new corporate owners don't work to fill.
"Corporations, you know, they put their systems in place, but they don't put manpower in place to help these practices or to support culture," Lacroix said.
Pillay's Oct. 4 email to clients indicates that Bramer is currently employing "relief doctors," but it is not clear how many there are or how long they will be there.
Sporadic closuresBramer has started announcing sporadic one-day closures on short notice. Brennan said she's received emails.
"Email saying they were gonna be closed one day this week, or one day next week, that had been happening all last month," Brennan said. "Which I thought was odd, I was like, 'I've never heard of a vet practice closing for a day,' but I thought maybe they were low-staffed or training."
The RoundTable found five notices of single-day closure posted to Bramer's Facebook page, with the earliest dating back to July 11, 2023. Four were posted the same day of the closure, and one was posted one day in advance.
A July 11, 2023, Facebook post by Bramer Animal Hospital announcing they will be closed that day. Credit: Bramer Animal Hospital
An Aug. 24, 2023, Facebook post by Bramer Animal Hospital announcing they will be closed the following day. Credit: Bramer Animal Hospital
A Sept. 12, 2023, Facebook post by Bramer Animal Hospital announcing they will be closed that day. Credit: Bramer Animal Hospital
A Sept. 29, 2023, Facebook post by Bramer Animal Hospital announcing it will be closed the following day. Credit: Bramer Animal Hospital
An Oct. 7, 2023, Facebook post by Bramer Animal Hospital announcing it will be closed that day. Credit: Bramer Animal HospitalIn recent weeks, some clients have posted negative reviews on Yelp and Google Maps, and voiced confusion in posts on Nextdoor.
'A bond with your veterinarian'The departures of all five regular veterinarians have been felt by Bramer's clients and their pets.
For one, there's the simple loss of continuity with the previous vets. Lacroix said veterinary medicine is a "relationship profession" where continuity of care and familiarity are highly valued by clients.
"Just like with human medicine, you establish a bond with your veterinarian," Lacroix said. "Your veterinarian knows your pet much more than what they just write in the medical records, right? And they know you."
Brennan, who's been taking pets to Bramer for around 20 years, said she has yet to have a negative experience. But she said she isn't sure who will be caring for her dog at the next appointment.
"Everybody that we took our dogs to is now gone," Brennan said. "So the next time we go in for whatever, I'll just be curious, you know, who's there and how it seems."
Longtime Bramer client Dorward, on the other hand, said she's leaving Bramer and following her vet to their new practice. She said she grew frustrated when her dog had an urgent health issue but the soonest appointment was 10 weeks out, forcing her to call as soon as they opened on a particular day to book the single available emergency visit.
Another former client, Jeff Singleton, said he had similar issues with scheduling, but with life-or-death stakes for his dog. He told the RoundTable that after Bramer staff identified a tumor at the base of his dog's tail that required removal, he was unable to book follow-up appointments for confirmation and treatment despite numerous attempts over a few months.
Singleton said he ultimately found treatment for his dog elsewhere, and has since switched a different animal hospital.
"We were never unhappy with any of the service that we got at Bramer," Singleton said. "But we just simply couldn't get him [the dog] in, and he had a tumor that had to be dealt with. It just went on for two or three months, and I finally, essentially just gave up."
But switching locations for pet care is no simple matter; animal hospitals in the area have mixed availability. The RoundTable contacted eight full-service, non-specialty animal hospitals in and around Evanston, and three of the eight practices were not accepting new clients.
Industry-wide shortage of vetsAs for the hiring outlook at Bramer, Lacroix said it's "very difficult to find replacement" staff, as there's an industry-wide shortage of both vets and paraprofessional staff. She added, though, that she's seen other practices make comebacks in similar situations.
"There's plenty of practices that have been corporate-owned that have tanked around me," Lacroix said. "But there's also plenty that continue to do well, or they've kind of rebirthed themselves; you know, they lost everybody and they managed to kind of regroup themselves."
Editor's note: This story has been updated to include clarifications from Dr. Lacroix.
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Baby Seriously Injured In Dog Attack By Family's Own Pet
A Cane Corso dog was involved in the attack (stock image) (Getty iStock/ Linas Toleikis)
A ten-month-old baby has been left needing surgery after he was attacked by a normally "loving and affectionate" family dog.
The Cane Corso X is said to have shown no previous signs of aggression before biting the boy as he started to cry in his Barnsley home on Tuesday morning. The baby remains in hospital in a stable but serious condition.
Police said the attack was out of character for the dog, who has no previous history of aggression, with the owner describing him as being "pleasant" and "affectionate" with children.
Dog Legislation Officer PC Paul Jameson said: "We were called at 7.42am this morning to a property in Hoyland, following a young child being attacked and bitten by a family dog.
"Our early enquiries with the family highlighted that the dog was not previously reported to be of an aggressive nature, and this was a family who took precautions and are responsible owners.
"An incident like this is a stark reminder that regardless of a dog's nature, or previous interactions with children, other dogs and people, they are animals and their innate instinct to protect themselves which can result in serious injuries and sometimes fatality."
Do you know the victim or have been affected by the incident? Contact Barney.Davis.Ind@Independent.Co.Uk.
The family said recently the dog had become stressed by fireworks being set off in the local area.
"If you know your dog does not accept people knocking at the door, put up a sign ahead of Halloween to stop people knocking," PC Jameson continued.
"If your dog becomes unsettled when fireworks are set off, walk your dog in daylight hours, close the windows and draw your curtains to help muffle the sound and put the radio or TV on.
"Leave toys in the area your dog associates with feeling calm and safe. If you're hosting a celebration, follow the tips on our leaflet to keep everyone in your home safe."
Ian Langley was mauled to death by an XL Bully earlier this month at his home in Sunderland (Sunderland Global Media)
A Cane Corso is a breed of mastiff descended from Molossian war dogs of ancient Rome.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, the Cane Corso's protective nature may have inspired its name, which can be translated from Latin as "bodyguard dog" or "guard dog of the courtyard."
The incident is the latest in a string of dog attacks - some of them fatal - to have taken place across the country in recent weeks. XL Bully dogs have been involved in a significant number of them.
It came after a five-year-old boy suffered serious injuries after being attacked by a suspected Staffordshire Bull Terrier in Ashington on Sunday.
The child is currently being treated in hospital for serious but non-life threatening injuries, police said
Officers believed the dog involved was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, which was seized by police to "protect the public".
Just one week ago, a school was forced to evacuate in Norfolk after a 60-year-old woman was mauled by her pet XL Bully at her home, before it escaped from the back garden.
In September, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the dogs were to be banned by the end of the year following a spate of horrific attacks.
For more information about dog safety, please visit Blue Cross Charity website.
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