Dr. Jen Estle of Private Roots in Peterborough looks to buck corporate veterinary trend

When pet owners consider care for their friends, Dr. Jen Estle said they should think about corporate culture impacting their choices for a veterinarian.

Estle heads up Private Roots Veterinary in Peterborough, and said the impact of corporate acquisition and consolidation on the care of animals was the catalyst for her distinct practice. 

“I was with a corporate-owned vet practice for years,” said Estle in her Concord Street space. “There were 12 vets there, and eventually I wanted to step away from it. I was losing the human connection that you should have.”

The largest owner of veterinary businesses in the United States is Mars, a firm best known for candy bars. Estle said that one development the corporatization of animal care has wrought is a consolidation of practices in certain areas and towns, resulting in the closing of some and the departure of vets when they are deemed redundant at the new entity.

“We’ve seen this happen here,” she said.

Estle local roots and the private nature of her practice led to the Private Roots name. 

“We love animals and we know people love their animals, and bigger isn’t necessarily better when it comes to care,” she said.

A director of the American Veterinarian Medical Association concurred in 2018 when discussing this trend. 

“We need to gather more and better information on corporate practices, but it’s difficult,” said Matthew Salois of the AVMA Veterinary Economics Division.

“A lot of people probably don’t even know who owns the practice they take their pets to,” said Scott Estle, Estle’s husband, a web developer who handles some business and online ends of the practice.

“Corporate practices don’t tend to offer good work-life balance. Offices can be understaffed and people overworked,” said Jen Estle.

This situation contributed to the founding of Not One More Vet, an advocacy group that helps vets cope with the stressors of the job. It was founded in 2014 following the suicide of Dr. Sophia Yin, who had expressed despair over the demands of the business side of a practice. Jen Estle’s office staff allows her to focus on the animals and to work with their owners individually.

“I want to educate people rather than have them rely on Dr. Chew advertising for their dog’s nutrition,” she said. She also wants to bring a couple more vets into her practice. Three junior colleagues are working toward the necessary certifications and licensing to make this happen.

“This is also to help reduce compassion fatigue among us,” she added.

Sensing that pet owners want quality care for their friends and a need in the area, Private Roots is preparing to move across the street for space into a state-of-the-art facility later this year. 

“We’ll have four exam rooms, and the architect is creating separate dog and cat spaces,” said Jen Estle. “There’ll be laser surgery and a canine reproduction lab as well.”

The latter is one specialty area of the practice, which involves pairing certain dogs whose traits might complement each other.

“There are a lot of genetics involved,” said Jen Estle. “We really want to facilitate responsible dog breeding,” mentioning a hope to meet demand for service and emotional support dogs

The work-in-progress space has previously housed a bar, a pizza shop and a consignment store, among other incarnations, and offers 4,000 square feet as opposed to Private Roots’ current 1,500. The exam rooms and X-ray area in their current space may seem “cozy,” to use Jen Estle’s word, but Shadow didn’t seem to mind. The pure bred English Lab was visiting from Cold Spring Healing Paws in New Ipswich, and seemed quite thrilled to be there. 

Jen Estle encourages wellness visits with pets and offers numerous cautions regarding ticks.

“There’s no offseason for them, and there’s only one antibiotic to treat a bite. It’s seldom cold enough even in winter to be safe from them outside,” she said, pointing to a calendar indicating the few days last year that might qualify.  

Ninety percent of Private Roots’ care is for dogs and cats, but the practice has also treated rabbits and chickens. Education is perhaps the biggest element of the practice, and Jen Estle offered an aside that she wished more people knew. 

“For all of how it’s pushed by some big corporations, grain-free dog food can be quite unhealthy with regard to the animal’s heart,” she said.

The FDA began investigating the link between the product and canine heart disease in 2023. Between dietary advertising and animal care as a corporate enterprise, Jen Estle hopes that pet owners will be thoughtful about their choices and communicate with their animals’ caregivers. 

“Talk to your vet instead of Google,” she said