Stats from the Veterinary Industry Tracker powered by Vetsource and AVMA
July 6-12, 2025
In a narrow but historic decision, a New York state court has allowed potential emotional distress compensation tied to a dog’s death, indicating the dog is an immediate family member, not just property.
The New York judge ruled [1] that a woman walking her family’s dog when the dog was hit by a car and killed can sue the vehicle’s driver for negligent infliction of emotional distress (NEID).
In New York, bystanders can claim emotional distress when they witness an immediate family member’s death or serious injury while also being in the “zone of danger” themself. In Deblase v Hill, the legal issue was whether a dog can qualify as an “immediate family” member under New York’s “zone of danger” doctrine, enabling emotional distress damages.
The judge found that contemporary laws — such as pet trusts (since 1996) and divorce statutes recognizing pet welfare (since 2021) — show legal recognition of pets as family. He held that treating the dog in this case as mere property “fails to reflect modern views based on facts and reason” and that the dog’s owner was “within the zone of danger” and suffered foreseeable emotional harm.
However, the judge indicated that if the dog had not been leashed to the person or if the dog had been leashed to a dog walker or some other non-family member, the ruling would have been different. He also limited his ruling to only the family member who was within the zone of danger.
The AVMA [2], the New York State Veterinary Medical Society, and other organizations have filed a brief opposing the noneconomic damages claim. The ruling is currently under appeal.
Check out the Veterinary Industry Tracker [3] for daily stats.
| +2.3% Revenue YoY (Last Week) |
-1.7% Visits YoY (Last Week) |
Last week, year-over-year veterinary industry revenue and visits returned to pre-Fourth of July holiday levels, with revenue at 2.3% (down from 7.8% the previous week) and visits at -1.7% (a decrease from 4.3% the week prior).
 -4.9%Heartworm YoY |
-4.4% Flea/Tick YoY |
 +3.1%Services YoY |
-0.4% Products YoY |
Parasiticide purchases also fell back to pre-Fourth of July levels. Year-over-year heartworm fell from -0.9% to -4.9%, while flea/tick dropped from 0.3% to -4.4%. Year-over-year service revenue was 3.1%, and product revenue was -0.4%, changes from the previous week’s respective 8.9% and 4.7%.
| +2.0% Revenue YoY (Last 12 Months) |
-3.1% Visits YoY (Last 12 Months) |
The rolling 14-day trendline showed an uptick in revenue and visits over the past week.
| 6,121 Practices |
2.2M Revenue per Practice (Last 12 Months) |
10.2K Visits per Practice (Last 12 Months) |
Last week, Maine enjoyed the most year-over-year revenue growth again at 6.2%. Three states — Oregon, Connecticut, and Maryland — tied for second place at 4.9%. While no states saw positive year-over-year growth in visits, Oregon once again experienced the smallest decline at -0.1%, and Iowa trailed closely behind at -0.6%.
*Numbers are subject to change based on data availability and PIMS adjustments.
Need additional stats? You got it.
The Premium Veterinary Industry Tracker lets you drill into revenue categories, visit types, date ranges, states, and more.
| LEARN MORE » [4] |