SYNOPSIS

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The Cost of Caring is a documentary about the high incidence of veterinarian suicide rates in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Veterinary Medical Association published a joint study in 2019 indicating that veterinarians were more likely to die by suicide as compared to the general U.S. population. Men were 2.1 times more likely and for women, it was worse at 3.5 times. The researchers cited multiple stressors that may play a role: the daily demands at work which include euthanizing pets, burnout, compassion fatigue, poor work-life balance, and being cyber bullied and vilified by pet owners for not meeting their expectations. This film delves into those issues and exposes this problem in the pet med industry today.