03/18/2026
The NB provincial government budget on Tuesday - March 17 - included a “phase out over three years of provincial large animal veterinary services and vet laboratory service". This has significant implications for anyone with any “large” animals - i.e. all horses, ponies, cattle, goats, sheep, donkeys, and of course alpacas and llamas. The other not so nice implication will be that animals needing care will not get it, and will suffer the consequences. There is also the question of the security of food ensuing from this “money based ” decision, thus actually affecting every New Brunswicker.
The government concept is that private vets would eventually deliver the services currently provided by the provincial government. While there has been difficulty recruiting new vets into the service, this approach will simply encourage recent hires to accept offers from adjoining provinces as they likely still have large student loans to pay off, and have neither the experience nor financial ability to set up a new practice. I suspect other provinces will be pleased with the NB decision. As well image the time for new “large” animal vet practices to appear - what? - 4 years in the future in a couple of geographic areas of the province? How does that resolve the animal that is currently suffering pain? The answer that will be given is “it is a three year phase out”. However the aspect ignored in this answer is that within a year, the vet service will likely have lost perhaps half their employees, as folks need to be able to eat and pay bills, and can vote with their feet.
One could voice concerns to the Premier Susan Holt [email protected] and the Department of Agriculture minister - [email protected], There is even a petition - currently with nearly 12,000 signatures - that can be found at https://www.change.org/p/protect-our-livestock-restore-funding-to-provincial-veterinary-services/feed
How this ends up is unknown. It however has perhaps succeeded in bringing to folks attention a subject that has the potential to severely negatively impact large animal farming activities in New Brunswick.
