How DOGE Cuts are Affecting Veterinarians
Even the veterinary field has been unable to dodge DOGE impacts.
For reference, DOGE—or, the Department of Government Efficiency, a governmental task force tasked with restructuring the federal government workforce—has been working its way through numerous government agencies. That’s led to a lot of layoffs, numbering in the tens of thousands, across various government bodies and agencies. The goal is to reduce the overall size of the government and save the taxpayers' money.
DOGE has made significant cuts to agencies that work in or around the veterinary field, too, such as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Within the HHS, there are sub-agencies, like the FDA, which runs the Center for Veterinary Medicine—and, as you may have guessed, there are a lot of veterinarians at that sub-agency. But they were not spared by DOGE cuts, and hundreds have been terminated, including agency leadership.
But that’s not all. Other bodies within the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, both of which also have veterinarians and animal specialists within their ranks, have been affected. The list goes on: the Human Foods Program, the Office of Inspections and Investigations, the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health, and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research…all were impacted, or are being impacted. That’s not even mentioning the USDA and the Department of Defense—yes, even the military has veterinarians!
What it all means is that there’s less research being done to help and protect animals. There’s less drug availability. Pet foods (and human foods) may be less safe than they were a year ago. It’s touch-and-go right now, but as it stands, there’s a lot that’s happening—and that could potentially happen.
All of this is happening at the national level, and it can be difficult to tell if or how it’s filtering down to small practices, like ours. The truth is, it’s going to be difficult to tell until it happens—we, like many other veterinary practices, will continue to see patients and do our best to make sure every pet is happy and healthy.
But there isn’t much we can do if the FDA isn’t inspecting pet foods with the same degree of rigorousness that they once were. Or if there’s critical research about antibiotic resistance that is no longer happening due to grant cancellations. We’ll just need to hope for the best. And who knows, maybe there will be some good things that come from the changes DOGE is attempting to make?
For now, though, it’s up in the air. If you have questions, of course, we’re happy to do our best to answer them. And you can count on us to keep seeing you, your pet, and using any and all available data and information to make the best medical decisions we can.
Contact us to make an appointment today!
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