Independent Vet List Methodology

Our goal is to make the most complete and trustable list of independently owned veterinary practices.

How the List Is Built

We started by building a list of veterinary practices in the United States, checking that source list for accuracy and completeness. The directory now also includes practices in Canada and the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, reviewed and maintained through the same ownership and data-quality process.

We then subtract all practices listed on Private Equity Vet from the list. The remaining practices are treated as potential but unverified, independent practices.

Every time a practice is verified and added to or removed from Private Equity Vet, we perform the opposite action on Independent Vet.

Map and Location Search Data

The map uses OpenStreetMap map data. Its required attribution is displayed directly on the map.

Five-digit ZIP searches use coordinates derived from the GeoNames Postal Code Data, which is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. We transform the source data into a compact ZIP-to-centroid lookup that centers the map on the approximate ZIP-code area without filtering practice markers.

Canadian postal-code searches use a local lookup derived from GeoNames Canadian postal data, available under CC BY 4.0. Enter a three-character prefix such as M5V, or a full code such as M5V 2T6 (spaces and capitalization do not matter). Both open the approximate centre of the M5V postal area and show nearby practices subject to your filters, even when no practice has that exact code. Rural areas open at a wider zoom. These are approximate area centres, not exact addresses or official postal boundaries; practice coordinates are unchanged.

The short prefixes E1W, N1C and N1P also identify UK postcode districts. Select Canada or enter a full Canadian code to search the Canadian area.

How Do We Define Independent?

As a general rule, we consider a veterinary practice to be independent when it is majority owned and controlled by the veterinarians who work in the practice, or by a small group of local veterinarians. We also consider local non-profit organizations to be independent from corporate interests. In contrast, we do not consider practices owned by private equity firms (in part, or in totality), publicly traded corporations, or large veterinary consolidators to be independent, even when local veterinarians retain some minority ownership interest.

We recognize that veterinary practice ownership structures can be complex, are not always transparent from the outside and do not always fit neatly into a single category. For this reason, we try to make a fair judgement of who ultimately controls key decisions relating to patient care, staffing, pricing, compensation, and the strategic direction of the practice. Our goal is not to apply a rigid legal definition, but to provide pet owners with a practical and transparent way to identify veterinary practices that remain locally owned, locally managed, and largely autonomous in how they serve their patients and communities.

How We Verify Independence

In as many geographies as possible, we individually review practices and verify independent status where we can.

We verify this by:

  1. Reviewing practice websites, social media, and publicly available sources such as state or local business registries, Better Business Bureau profiles, veterinary license databases, and professional directories where useful.
  2. Reviewing submissions from the community and/or practice owners to confirm they meet our criteria for being independent.
  3. Checking known veterinary group lists, acquisition announcements, corporate websites, and other sources for signs of corporate ownership or control.
  4. In some cases, reaching out to the practice to ask about its independent status.

No single check is definitive. Public databases can be incomplete or out of date, and they often identify a registered entity or license holder without revealing ultimate beneficial ownership. It is not feasible to obtain and individually inspect complete company records for every practice. When all available checks are consistent and no contrary ownership signal is found, verification may rely partly on a practice representative’s attestation. This is an evidence-informed, trust-based process rather than a legal audit.

Claiming a profile is not proof of independence by itself, but genuinely independent practices are often willing to identify their owners publicly and put that ownership claim on the record. If you own an independent practice, we highly recommend that you explicitly state it on your website—not only does this make verification easier, but it is what many customers are specifically looking for. Learn how claimed-practice verification works.

Practices that are verified independent are marked as Verified Independent, along with the date they were last verified.

For practices that are proudly independent, we allow them to supply a link to a page on their website that highlights their independent status and their commitment to high-quality, high-value veterinary care.

How You Can Help

We rely on your contributions to add newly opened independent practices to the list and to crowdsource help with verification. The best way is to click on existing map locations that are unverified and complete the verification form. If the practice is truly missing from the map you can Add a Practice.

What’s Next

Independent Vet currently covers veterinary practices in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. We are continuing to improve coverage, ownership verification, data quality, and map performance in all three countries. Coverage and verification vary by location; a missing listing does not mean that no independent practice operates in that area.

Limitations and Data Quality

Building this list started with a painstaking process of reviewing practice websites, state or county registries where available, and other public sources for signals of independent ownership. All practices are cross-referenced against the Private Equity Vet list before they are verified independent. We launched with a small but meaningful dataset and now rely heavily on reports from pet owners, veterinarians, and practice owners.

Each report is individually reviewed with the assistance of a frontier AI model and human oversight. Even with this process, the data may not always be complete or current: public records rarely disclose actual ownership, ownership structures can be complex, and practice websites may not reflect recent changes. If ownership is important to your decision or anything appears uncertain, ask the practice directly who owns and controls it. If you notice an error or have more current information, please contact us.

Embed the Map on Your Website

Publications and other websites can embed a live map of practices in their area. Open the full map, choose the geography, use Copy link, then paste it into the standalone embed generator to create the HTML. The embed fits the width of your article or container and includes practice details, published ownership evidence where available, and a link to the full site.

Read the embedding guide for step-by-step instructions, responsive sizing and publishing tips. Embedded maps update with our current data; they are not a fixed record of an article’s findings.

Acknowledgements

Independent Vet is made possible by technologies and communities we are grateful to use: