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Insurance, Liability and Dog Owners - Part 2
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Last week's tip included details about home insurance,
legal resources, and a Humane Society of the U.S.
effort to help dog owners get insurance. The American
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
(ASPCA) also is waging a campaign to stop insurance
companies from discriminating against dogs based on
breed instead of deed. Keep in mind, even if your
breed has not been targeted, discriminatory practices
can spread against all dog owners.
Following is contact info for responding to the ASPCA
survey, plus excerpts from two web articles
supplementing last weekUs edition of Dog Tips, which
is at
* ASPCA SURVEY. If your insurance company has
refused to write or has canceled your homeowner's or
renter's policy based on the breed of dog you own,
please complete our online survey at the ASPCA
Advocacy Center at
* In addition to the survey, ASPCA is collecting
stories from people who have had difficulty in
obtaining insurance due to the breed of the dog.
Write to Jill Buckley, ASPCA Government Affairs and
Public Policy Department, PO Box 48, Pismo Beach, CA
93448 or e-mail jillb@aspca.org
* From the ASPCA article "Pet Owners Must Often
Choose -- Insurance or Their Pet": Many homeowners
nationwide are faced with the hardship of choosing
between keeping a beloved family dog and obtaining
homeowners' insurance -- simply because their dog is
on a list of breeds that the insurance company has
excepted from its policies.
In California, the ASPCA is sponsoring legislation to
prohibit such discrimination. "The insurance companies
do have alternatives," says Jill Buckley of the
ASPCA's Western Government Affairs and Public Policy
office. "Dogs who are socialized, obedience-trained,
spayed or neutered, and are owned by responsible
people are not likely to be involved in a bite
incident. Insurance companies should evaluate the
dog's temperament by utilizing tests such as the
Canine Good Citizen Test administered by the American
Kennel Club." For the full article, see
* Following are excerpts from a February 2003 article
on www.Insure.com entitled "Home Insurance and Dog
Owners."
** About 40 percent of American households have at
least one dog, according to The Humane Society of the
United States. Many of those dog owners have
homeowners insurance, too.
** Dogs might bite due to fear, to protect their
territory, or to establish their dominance over the
person being bitten. Some dog owners mistakenly teach
their dogs that biting is an acceptable form of play
behavior.
** As the costs of dog bite litigation spirals --
more than $1 billion a year according to the Insurance
Information Institute -- some insurance companies are
refusing to write coverage for owners of certain
breeds.
** The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
estimate nearly 2 percent of the U.S. population are
bitten by dogs each year. Most are children. Ten to
20 people die every year as a result of dog bites in
the U.S. The majority of the victims are children.
The list of top breeds involved in both bite injuries
and fatalities changes from year to year and from one
area of the country to another. Although genetics do
play some part in determining whether a dog will bite,
factors such as whether the dog is spayed or neutered,
properly socialized, supervised, humanely trained, and
safely confined play significantly greater roles.
Responsible dog ownership of all breeds is the key to
dog bite prevention. Source: The Humane Society of
the United States.
While there might not be an industry-wide "blacklist"
of breeds, some insurers have lists of breeds and
crossbreeds they will not insure. Other insurers
consider such breeds on a case-by-case basis.
In some states, it's illegal for insurance companies
to deny coverage simply because a home has a dog of a
particular breed.
Some companies don't discriminate by breed. "We
believe that there are good dogs and bad dogs within
every breed, just as we believe that there are
responsible and irresponsible owners," says Phil
Supple of State Farm.
Dan Hattaway, an underwriting consultant for State
Farm, says the company doesn't even track how many of
its home insurance policyholders own dogs.
Policyholders do have to answer questions about dogs
on the application, however. Specifically, the company
wants to know if a dog has ever bitten anyone or if it
has been trained for attack purposes.
If the dog has bitten someone, State Farm will want to
know the circumstances surrounding the bite. "We'll
want to ascertain if it's ever likely to happen again
-- if precautions have been taken to prevent it," says
Hattaway. Other factors the company looks at are the
seriousness of the injury and whether the attack was
provoked or unprovoked.
Considering each case individually: Hattaway gives
this example. An Irish setter gives birth to a litter
of puppies. She and the puppies are on the back porch.
Some friends come over with their little boy to look
at the puppies. Under the supervision of the insured,
everything is fine. Everyone goes inside, and parents
tell the boy that it's time to leave the dog alone
with her puppies.
"Well the adults got to talking about adult things,
and the little boy, unnoticed, decides he's going to
go out and pet the puppies. He got bit," says
Hattaway. "When State Farm followed up on the claim,
we found that the insured had had the female spayed.
She wasn't going to have any more puppies, and she
showed no further aggressive tendencies." Because the
dog's owner had taken steps to make sure that a
similar incident would not occur, State Farm continued
his coverage.
Some companies will ask, "Do you own a vicious dog?"
on home insurance applications. Any previous dog-bite
claims will show up on your claims history, which
insurers check before issuing a policy. Like State
Farm, some insurers will consider whether an attack
was provoked or unprovoked.
Insurers are most concerned about unprovoked dog
attacks. If your dog has an unprovoked attack in its
history, most insurers will cancel or refuse to renew
an existing home insurance policy, decline your
application for a new one, or attach an exclusion for
the dog to the policy. The exclusion means the
insurance policy would not cover any liability claims
caused by the dog, making you personally responsible
for any medical bills or lawsuits stemming from your
dog's actions.
Dog Bite Legal Center -- Comprehensive Information
For more Dog Tips and other information about pet
care, adoption and the work PAW does, visit our
website at: www.paw-rescue.org
Stamp Reminder: Please use the "Spay-Neuter Pets"
U.S. Postage Stamps.
To be added or removed from this e-mail list, contact
Robin at Tierneydog@yahoo.com
Partnership for Animal Welfare, Inc.
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| Last Updated: February 24, 2004 (LET) | PawSupport | |