Founded in 2012 on the edge of the First Hill “Pill Hill” medical neighborhood, Urban Animal is reorganizing as a cooperative and giving the chance to its 110 employees across three Seattle locations including Capitol Hill’s E Thomas to become owners of the veterinary clinic that serves more than 50,000 clients.
“The veterinary industry is in the eye of a perfect storm due to factors such as employee burnout and private equity buyouts, which are diminishing the number of qualified veterinary professionals,” Urban Animal founder and veterinarian Cherri Trusheim said in the announcement. “Urban Animal is presenting this groundbreaking solution to set the bar for the industry and beyond.”
Urban Animal’s announcement comes as the veterinary industry is facing “unprecedented corporatization as locally owned, ‘Mom and Pop,’ practices” sell to corporations and private equity groups.
“This often detracts from employee culture. Corporatization also diminishes the standard of care by upselling and tying veterinary professionals’ compensation to the amount of products and services they sell,” the announcement reads.
Started in 2012 at Broadway and Madison, Urban Animal has grown from its eventual E Thomas home to add downtown and West Seattle clinics. CHS last visited the Capitol Hill clinic in 2021 as Urban Animal help the neighborhood’s pets and owners catch up from the pandemic’s challenges with a first come, first served vaccination clinic. In 2019, CHS reported on the E Thomas clinic’s expansion.
Trusheim will remain in place as CEO as the cooperative launches with help from cooperative development partner, The Cooperative Way. According to the announcement, Urban Animal is reorganizing as a limited cooperative association and Trusheim will gift a portion of the company “to seed it, with a goal over time to become a 100 percent employee-owned worker co-op.”
The change will make Urban Animal the state’s nation’s first co-op veterinary practice, the organizations say.
It will also join a small community of cooperative businesses operating around the Hill including perhaps the most well-known example in E Madison’s Central Co-op which is now in its 45th year on Capitol Hill. A more recent example is the formation of a cooperative on 15th Ave E where the staff became owners at craft cocktail joint Liberty.
Urban Animal Capitol Hill is located at 909 E Thomas. You can learn more at urbananimalnw.com.
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