A huge, color photo of an anesthetized pit bull being prepped to enter the extremely high-tech mouth of a $750,000 MRI. That’s what’s pictured above the fold in SundayStyles, a section better known for frothy drink concoctions and the weekly wedding roster than for animal fare.

The article details the New York Animal Medical Center (that bastion of non-profit, academic-oriented veterinary services for going on thirty years now) and its emerging competition, primarily the for-profit behemoth that is New York City Veterinary Specialists.

AMC is such a well-respected institution that, until recently, it seemed unlikely for another hospital to usurp its predominance in the high-priced Manhattan market for super-premium vet services. But a gleaming, 20,000 square-foot facility that boasts every toy but its own linear accelerator is having a successful go at it.

Granted, care at NYC Vet Specialists is remarkably expensive. The article mentioned that Steve Martin’s dog went home with a $900 some-odd bill after ingesting chocolate and needing to throw it back up. That’s about four-hundred percent more than what I charge for a similar procedure. Who knows, though, maybe this wasn’t a simple outpatient case. (But I do know how much some of my NYC friends spend on vets—and it’s pricey by anyone’s standards.)

While the NYT does not in any way disparage the care at AMC (nor should it), it does manage to cast its customer service in a less-than-favorable light. It quotes pet owners who have suffered long emergency service wait times and vets who choose to refer elsewhere so that fresh-from-school interns aren’t endowed with their patients’ care.

It’s not a pretty article for the AMC, whose pillow-shaped laurels are undeniably being questioned—for their shape if not their substance. The overall sentiment is that times are changing—and the AMC has not changed with them.

Indeed, animal care is very different these days. And while there’s a need for institutions like Angell Memorial in Boston and AMC in NYC, it’s tough to run a hospital as big as any vet school’s and still offer services competitive with those now available in the private arena.

Specialists are completing their residencies and passing their boards in droves compared to what we experienced only twelve years ago (when I graduated). So it makes sense that the city as large as New York would need more of their increasingly sought-after ilk. And it’s been clear for years now that they wouldn’t all fit at AMC.

In spite of the negative press, I’m not sure AMC’s sweating it any. Their goals have always been more academic and less economic (as designated by their non-profit status), but that’s not to say that AMC shouldn’t get off it’s leafy behind and work to bolster its image in the eyes of its community…for the sake of the many pets who benefit from both the research and care that emanates from within its walls.