A new query seems to come every day. An email pings in Otto Sharp’s inbox, or the phone rings at Swannanoa Valley Animal Hospital, and though the company on the other end may change, the gist is always the same: Ever thought about selling?
“They’re circling me like a vulture,” Sharp said recently.
But Sharp, who came to Asheville in 1999, has been around long enough to have his own bird’s-eye view of the veterinary landscape. When he bought Swannanoa Valley in 2005, independent ownership was still the norm for local vet hospitals. Then came a steady creep of corporatization that exploded around the turn of this decade…