Data last verified: 8 November 2026. Figures re-checked against their primary sources under the Whito rolling re-verification programme.
Finding
Of 40 vet practices Google AI Mode recommended in six UK cities on 8 November 2026, 22 belong to a corporate group, and 17 of those 22 trade under a local name that does not show the owner.
Source: Whito, whito.co.uk/vets/ai-mode-vet-recommendations-who-owns-them. Free to quote with a link to this page.
Last Updated on November 13, 2026
Read a short summary
General summary
On 8 November 2026 Whito asked Google AI Mode to recommend a good vet in six UK cities and checked who owns the 40 practices it named. 22 of the 40 belong to a corporate group. 13 are independent. The rest are two charities, two university practices and one that could not be confirmed. 17 of the 22 group-owned practices trade under a local name with no group in it.
Bullet points
- Google AI Mode, "Recommend a good vet in [city]", six UK cities, asked on 8 November 2026.
- 40 practices named. 22 belong to a corporate group.
- 13 are independent. The rest are two charities, two university practices and one not confirmed.
- 17 of the 22 group-owned practices trade under a local name with no group in it.
- The owner appears in the footer, the privacy policy or the terms.
Basic explainer
Many UK vet practices are owned by large companies, called corporate groups, but keep their old local name. Whito asked Google’s AI search tool to recommend vets and checked who owns each one. More than half belong to a group. Whito calls its check the local-name test: can you tell who owns a practice from its name alone? For most group-owned practices, you cannot.
These summaries were written with AI from this page only. The full page below is the record.
Asked: 8 November 2026. Google AI Mode, “Recommend a good vet in [city]”, six UK cities. Checked: who owns every practice it named.
Ask AI Mode for a good vet and it talks a lot about independence. In Leeds it headed a section “Top Independent General Vets”. In Bristol, “Top Independent Family Practices”. In Manchester and Cardiff it warned about “aggressive” upselling at corporate chains.
So we checked who owns the 40 practices it named. 22 of the 40 belong to a corporate group. 13 are independent. The rest are two charities, two university practices and one we could not confirm.
Most of the group-owned practices do not look it. 17 of the 22 trade under a local name with no group in it, such as Holly House Vets, White Cross Vets or Viking Vets.
Who owns the vets AI Mode recommends
| Owner | Practices named |
|---|---|
| IVC Evidensia (including Vets Now) | 10 |
| Linnaeus (part of Mars) | 3 |
| CVS Group | 3 |
| VetPartners | 3 |
| Medivet | 2 |
| Pets at Home (Vets for Pets) | 1 |
| All corporate groups | 22 |
| Independent | 13 |
| Charity or community interest company | 2 |
| University | 2 |
| Not confirmed | 1 |
| City | Names | Group-owned |
|---|---|---|
| Leeds | 7 | 4 |
| Manchester | 8 | 3 |
| Birmingham | 6 | 5 |
| Bristol | 7 | 5 |
| Glasgow | 7 | 3 |
| Cardiff | 5 | 2 |
The local-name test
We call it the local-name test: can you tell who owns a practice from its name alone? For 17 of the 22 group-owned practices, you cannot. The owner appears in the footer, the privacy policy or the terms, for example “a trading name of CVS (UK) Limited” or “Part of Linnaeus, an Affiliate of Mars”.
The five that pass the test carry the group brand in their name: two Medivet practices, one Vets for Pets and two Vets Now hospitals.
One thing went the other way. Every practice whose own website calls itself independent turned out to be independent. We found no group-owned practice claiming to be independent.
The answers, as captured
These are screenshots of the top of each Google AI Mode answer we used, taken on 8 November 2026 from one signed-in account. Click any image to see it full size. Answers change from day to day, so you may get a different list if you ask today.
How we checked
For each practice we looked for the owner in this order: the practice’s own website (footer, about page, privacy policy, terms), the group’s own practice finder, then trade press or Companies House. Every source is in the download file. Where a practice says it is independent and shows no company name, we have taken its word and marked it in the file.
ChatGPT and Gemini, asked the same question on 12 November 2026
On 12 November 2026 we asked ChatGPT and Gemini the same question, “Recommend a good vet in [city]”, once each in the same six cities. ChatGPT named 29 practices. Gemini named 44.
Of 29 vet practices ChatGPT recommended in six UK cities on 12 November 2026, it called 17 independent; one of them, Viking Vets in Bristol, says on its own website that it is part of VetPartners.
Gemini was the only one of the three engines that showed who owns a practice. Three of its six answers had an ownership column.
| Engine | Asked | Practices named | Belong to a group | Charity, not-for-profit or university | Independent on our record | Unknown or not yet checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Google AI Mode | 8 Nov 2026 | 40 | 22 | 4 | 13 | 1 |
| ChatGPT | 12 Nov 2026 | 29 | 8 | 2 | 9 | 10 |
| Gemini | 12 Nov 2026 | 44 | 15 | 6 | 7 | 16 |
The ChatGPT and Gemini rows are minimum counts. We used our 8 November ownership file for every practice already in it, and opened the practice’s own website on 12 November for White Cross Vets and Viking Vets. Practices named for the first time on 12 November sit in the last column until we check them.
The local-name test on the other two engines
- ChatGPT: 7 of the 8 group practices it named trade under a name that does not show the owner. The one that does is Medivet.
- Gemini: 13 of 15. The two that show the owner are Vets4Pets and Vets Now.
- AI Mode on 8 November: 17 of 22.
When the engine says “independent”
- ChatGPT called 17 of its 29 practices independent. We hold an ownership record for 9 of those. 8 match. One does not: ChatGPT described Viking Vets in Bristol as an “established independent practice”. Its own website says it is a member of VetPartners (opened 12 November), and VetPartners lists it as one of its practices.
- ChatGPT named White Cross Vets in Leeds and in Birmingham and said nothing about who owns it. The White Cross Vets website says it is part of the IVC Evidensia group.
- Gemini stated the owner or type of owner for 16 practices we hold a record for, and all 16 matched. It labelled Holly House in Leeds “Group (IVC Evidensia)”, Highcroft in Bristol “Corporate (CVS)” and Hyndland Street in Glasgow “Group (VetPartners)”.
- Gemini gave no owner for six group practices it named: White Cross Vets, Ashleigh, Manor Vets, Blaise, Viking Vets and Park Vets.
Who ChatGPT and Gemini named
| City | ChatGPT | Gemini |
|---|---|---|
| Leeds | Leeds Veterinary Centre, White Cross Vets (Roundhay), Oakwood Veterinary Surgery, Beehive Vets (Rothwell), Holly House Vets | Abbey House Vets, Beechwood Veterinary Group, Holly House Vets, Perfect Paws Vets, Oakwood Veterinary Surgery, Leeds Veterinary Centre, Tweed House |
| Manchester | GoVets, Agi-Vet, Manchester Cat Clinic, Animal Trust Vets (Failsworth), Ashleigh Veterinary Centre | GoVets, Ashleigh Veterinary Centre, Animal Trust Vets (Failsworth), Manchester Cat Clinic, Harrison Family Vets, T.A. Irving Veterinary Surgery |
| Birmingham | White Cross Vets (Kings Heath), The Lodge Veterinary Centre, Medivet Pype Hayes, Horner Vets (Sheldon) | Orchard Veterinary Centre, White Cross Vets (Kings Heath), Fivelands Veterinary Centre, Manor Vets (Edgbaston), Hollywood Veterinary Centre, Hillmans Vets, Blaise Veterinary Referral Hospital, Birmingham Aston PDSA Pet Hospital |
| Bristol | The Grove Vets, Avenue Veterinary Centre, Avon Lodge Vets, Fernlea Veterinary Clinic, Viking Vets | The Grove Vets, Watkins & Tasker, Langford Vets, Rowe Veterinary Group, Highcroft Veterinary Group, Zetland Vets, Viking Vets, Vets4Pets |
| Glasgow | ScotVet Sandyhills, Naismith Vets, Hyndland Street Veterinary Surgery, Animal Trust Vets (Ibrox), Bishopbriggs Veterinary Centre | University of Glasgow Small Animal Hospital, Animal Trust Vets (Ibrox), Ardmory Veterinary Clinic, Avenues Veterinary Group, Hyndland Street Veterinary Surgery, Pets’n’Vets (McDonald Vets and Roundhouse), Bishopbriggs Veterinary Centre, Vets Now Glasgow |
| Cardiff | Cardiff Veterinary Centre, Stone Court Vets, Origin Vets Clinic, Bridges Veterinary Surgery, Park Vets | Cardiff Veterinary Centre, Origin Vets Clinic, Live Well Vets, Park Vets, Marlborough Road Veterinary Centre, Valley Veterinary Hospital, Cardiff PDSA Pet Hospital |
Names in bold were also named by Google AI Mode on 8 November.
All three engines named the same 13 practices: Leeds Veterinary Centre (Leeds), Holly House Vets (Leeds), GoVets (Manchester), Manchester Cat Clinic (Manchester), Animal Trust Vets (Failsworth) (Manchester), Ashleigh Veterinary Centre (Manchester), White Cross Vets (Kings Heath) (Birmingham), The Grove Vets (Bristol), Viking Vets (Bristol), Hyndland Street Veterinary Surgery (Glasgow), Cardiff Veterinary Centre (Cardiff), Origin Vets Clinic (Cardiff), Park Vets (Cardiff). Across the three engines there were 68 different practices in 113 mentions.
How we ran the second engines
- One ask per city on each engine, each in a new chat, with no follow-up question. Same wording as on 8 November.
- ChatGPT: free account, temporary chat, set to ignore memory and custom instructions. Asked between 15:57 and 16:22 UK time on 12 November 2026.
- Gemini: free account, signed in, Temporary Chat, Auto mode. Asked between 16:24 and 16:39 UK time the same day. Gemini could see the account’s home area, which is not one of the six cities.
- We did not ask AI Mode again. Its figures here are the 8 November ones, so the engines were asked four days apart.
- Where two engines wrote slightly different names for what is plainly the same business, we matched them by hand.
- We have not yet checked who owns the practices named for the first time on 12 November. Group ownership says nothing about the quality of care.
- One answer per city is a small sample, and answers change from one ask to the next.
Every name from both engines is in one file: whito-chatgpt-gemini-second-engine-2026-11-12.csv.
What this does not prove
- Group ownership says nothing about the quality of care. Many group practices are excellent.
- We cannot tell from our capture exactly which names AI Mode placed under its “independent” headings, so we do not claim it mislabelled any single practice.
- Six cities, one question, one engine, one day. Answers change.
- Ownership changes too. This is a dated reading.
What to do with this
If you own an independent practice: AI Mode is already looking for you. It frames answers around independence, but it fills its lists with whoever has the clearest local signals.
- Start: say “independent” and “vet-owned” plainly on your homepage and in your Google Business Profile description, if it is true.
- Build: make sure your reviews mention what you are best at, such as cats, exotics or out-of-hours care. AI Mode sorted every city by “what they do best”.
- Then test it: ask AI Mode for a good vet in your own town and see who it names.
If you are a pet owner: if ownership matters to you, scroll to the footer of the practice’s website before you book. It is usually there.
Our AI Visibility Audit runs these checks for your practice and the rivals in your town.
Download the data
All 40 practices with the ownership we found, the page we read and a short quote: whito-ai-mode-vets-ownership-2026-11-08.csv. Free to reuse with a link to this page.
Cite this research
Whito Research (2026). Ask AI for an Independent Vet: Who Owns the Practices It Names. Whito. https://whito.co.uk/vets/ai-mode-vet-recommendations-who-owns-them/
Key finding: Of 40 vet practices Google AI Mode recommended in six UK cities on 8 November 2026, 22 belong to a corporate group, and 17 of those 22 trade under a local name that does not show the owner.
