Mars Inc. owns 3,000 vet clinics, the largest pet food brands, AND the diagnostics labs those clinics send bloodwork to — creating an unregulated vertical monopoly

Mars, Incorporated — the candy company that makes Snickers and M&Ms — is simultaneously the largest owner of veterinary clinics in the world (Banfield, VCA, BluePearl, AniCura, Linnaeus), the largest pet food company (Royal Canin, Pedigree, Iams, Nutro, Whiskas, Sheba), and a dominant player in veterinary diagnostics (Antech Diagnostics, Heska, SYNLAB Vet). As of 2023, Mars owned nearly half of all corporate-owned veterinary clinics. When a pet owner walks into a Mars-owned clinic, the vet may prescribe a Mars-owned diet, send bloodwork to a Mars-owned lab, and refer to a Mars-owned specialist — and the pet owner has no idea that a single company is profiting at every step. This vertical integration directly harms independent veterinary practices and pet owners. Independent clinics report that Mars-owned diagnostics labs charge them higher prices for the same bloodwork panels that Mars-owned clinics get at internal transfer pricing. In November 2024, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal sent a formal letter to Mars' CEO opening a congressional investigation into whether Mars uses its market position to engage in price discrimination against independent practices. When independents cannot compete on lab costs, they either raise prices (which pet owners pay) or lose clients to corporate clinics (which accelerates consolidation). The result is a market where over 30% of general practices and over 75% of specialty/emergency practices are now corporate-owned, up from 8% just over a decade ago. This persists because antitrust enforcement has not kept pace with veterinary consolidation. When Mars acquired VCA in 2017, the FTC required divestiture of only 12 clinics — a rounding error in a 3,000-clinic empire. There is no federal regulator specifically overseeing veterinary market concentration. State veterinary boards regulate medical standards, not business practices. And pet owners, unlike human healthcare consumers, have no insurance networks, no price transparency requirements, and no regulatory body advocating for their financial interests. The consolidation is invisible to the consumer until their vet bill doubles and they have no alternative.