Nating Zhao

Access to veterinary care is a multifaced challenge that revolves the spatial accessibility of veterinary service and social economic factors that may cause barriers for pet ownership seeking veterinary consultations. This study aims to evaluate the spatial accessibility of veterinary services across the city of Toronto, while also investigating the relationships between accessibility score and socioeconomic indicators through the utilization of spatial regression. Based on network analysis, this study examines the accessibility of veterinary clinic within the 10-min, 15-min, and 20 min travel threshold and compares the results from 2SFCA method and Gaussian-based 2SFCA method. The study found that the spatial distribution of veterinary clinics and heightened accessibility levels clustered in the central area of the city and have statistically significant relationships with house ownership rate and proportion of individuals having a bachelor’s degree or higher, further reveled social inequality issue of access veterinary services. This work can be used by animal welfare organizations and policymakers looking to improve access to veterinary care and constructing a more robust animal welfare system.
Keywords: Veterinary Services, Access, 2SFCA, Spatial Regression