The actual rate of veterinary malpractice lawsuits in the US is less than 0.0009% of lawsuits per vet visit (total suits, not successful suits, for which there are no data.)[CD1143,CD1144] The calculation is: 69m dogs x 2.4 vet visits/year (assuming only one pet per household, which is conservative as many people have more than one dog or more than one cat) = 165.5m visits/year + 45m cats x 1.3 vet visits/year = 58.5m visits/year = total for only cats and dogs of 224m vet visits/year in the US for cats+dogs ÷ 2000 total veterinary malpractice lawsuits per year < 0.0009% lawsuit rate. Few states have other than nominal values on pet life, and unlike human medicine, there is no ethical or professional duty to provide medical care to an animal.