Toronto Humane Society provides Public Veterinary Services to pet guardians in the Greater Toronto Area. These services are priced on a low-cost model, but these prices are still inaccessible to some pet guardians. To increase access to veterinary care, we offer a further 30-50% discount on top of our low-cost model to members of the community in need.
Your donation would help offset the cost of offering discounts to pet guardians in need, as determined by reliance on government support for income (Ontario Works, ODSP, GIS) or those with Indigenous status, allowing us to offer a variety of animal veterinary and wellness services to all species of owned pets. There is a need for accessible veterinary care. We have found that there are a variety of owned animals in the Greater Toronto Area with a variety of health and wellness needs. However, not all of them have regular access to a veterinarian. Increasing this access to veterinary care is one of Toronto Humane Society’s core purposes. According to the 2016 census, the median total household income in the City of Toronto was $65,829, below the Ontario median of $74,287. Over 20% of the population in Toronto (543,390 households) had an income below Statistics Canada’s Low Income Measure After Tax. This indicates that veterinary costs may be inaccessible to a significant portion of the population of Toronto. In fact, there are an estimated 250,000 pets in the City of Toronto alone without regular access to a veterinarian.
In addition, a research team at our organization is investigating “veterinary deserts” in the City of Toronto. These are areas that are farther from veterinarians and less likely to be serviced. So far, several locations in Toronto have been identified as not being near a veterinarian, and preliminary review of the data indicates that low geographic access to veterinary clinics is correlated with areas high in ethnic concentration and material deprivation. Further analysis will clarify and solidify these relationships.
Expert veterinarians provide services at our clinic and in remote temporary clinics
The same expert veterinary team at our clinic provides services to full-paying clientele as well as to those receiving discounts, so we do not sacrifice quality to provide these subsidies.
All services are offered at our 11 River Street downtown Public Veterinary Services clinic. This location is accessible by car or public transit, and is centrally located so that many pet guardians can easily reach it. We are also planning to expand to additional clinic locations in the coming years to be able to provide even more accessible care.
Our service model offers the same services to all clients, whether paying full price or receiving a discount; the only difference is the price they pay. We offer a full range of wellness and surgery treatments, including:
- General services: Wellness exam, Consult exam, Rabies Vaccination, DA2PPV Vaccination, FVRCP
Vaccination, Bordetella, Leptospirosis Vaccination, Microchip Implant, Humane Euthanasia
- Surgical Services: Spay/Neuter and Dental procedures
- Diagnostic services (pre-surgery): Sample collection (blood or urine), Fecal flotation, Giardia Snap, Urinalysis,
4DX, Senior Profile, Wellness W1A, FIV/FeLV, Pre-Anesthetic Profile
- Additional services: IV fluids, sedation, Tapeworm treatment (Feline), Miscellaneous procedures; Revolution, Simparica
