People hardly give a second thought to insuring their homes, cars, themselves and families, but regularly forget their pets.
That omission can often prove disastrous if the animal gets sick, and not just financially for the pet owner.
Given costs of up to $2000 for major surgery - the cuddly cat or loyal labrador could find themselves turfed out of home - abandoned after years of unconditional love - due to prohibitively expensive treatment.
The answer, veterinarians say, is pet insurance.
Although the industry is only small in Australia, it is well established in Europe, where almost half of Swedish pet owners and 20 per cent of British ones have policies for their household animals.
RSPCA Victoria president doctor Hugh Wirth urged people to protect themselves against their pets needing serious medical attention.
"That's exactly why the RSPCA has long supported pet insurance," doctor Wirth said.
"If you can't afford to pay for annual vaccinations, annual worming ... then frankly you shouldn't have a pet at all.
"People nowadays insure their cars, insure their houses against devastating accidents ... we're just simply saying it's just as expensive to fix a pet."
An Australian Companion Animal Council report last year estimated cat and dog owners spent about $8 million on insurance, with the number of new policies growing each year.
The RSPCA, among others, already offers pet insurance and it is this market Manchester Unity is hoping to tap into.
It is offering to have the "whole family covered" and recently launched a new product for dogs and cats.
The company says 63 per cent of Australian households have a pet, including 3.75 million dogs and 2.43 million cats, and they spend $4.62 billion a year on them.
While it currently has only a few hundred policies on the books, business relationship manager David Rees hoped it will be "in the thousands" by the end of 2008.
"For us, it seems to be an untapped market so we see a lot of potential in there," Mr Rees said.
"It's very early days for us, but the sky's the limit in terms of what we want to try and achieve in terms of product and membership growth, but also the impact on the wider community."
He said pet insurance was behind only car and home insurance in the UK and was growing 200 per cent a year in the United States.
A 2004 American Animal Hospital Association survey found three per cent of United States pet owners had insurance for their animals.
And in 2005, the two largest companies held more than half a million policies, with most of the growth taking place since 2001, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).
California-based Veterinary Pet Insurance's policy holders more than doubled between 2001 and 2005, from 195,000 to 392,000.
Although off a much smaller base, Pethealth Inc. saw an almost six-fold increase - from 22,000 to 153,000 - in the same period.
AVMA spokesman Thomas McPheron said the concept was quickly catching on in the US.
"When you consider how many people have signed up ... it's pretty impressive," Mr McPheron said from Chicago.
"Definitely people are picking up on it pretty quickly here. It's really taken off in the last decade."
Friday, December 7, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
A four-legged friend
Taking tiny steps, Suzy the cocker spaniel walks patiently alongside Daniel Lienard as he slowly but surely makes his way down the long hallway to the activity room. Lienard is assisted by a walker so it takes him a while to get there.Suzy, his faithful four-legged companion, is with him every little step of the way.Born in France, Lienard spent most of his life in Wyoming working as a sheepherder so he was around dogs for almost all of his life. At 70 years old, he became a resident at the Poplar Living Center, an assisted-living facility in Casper. Shortly after he moved in, he asked if he could get a dog. Lucky for him, the Center allows pets."I'm happier having her," he says, with a slight French accent. "Dogs are the best company."
Company is what many seniors need. Having a pet can give an older person a sense of purpose, a reason to exercise and, most of all, a friend.Diane Pomerance, pet specialist and author of "Pet Parenthood: Adopting the Right Animal Companion for you," is a strong advocate of pet ownership for older people who are able to care for a dog or a cat."There are so many health benefits, but basically it's a companionship for somebody who otherwise would be alone or lonely," Pomerance said. "Animals are unconditionally loving. They don't see the IVs, they don't see the wheelchair. They relate on a level that is just intangible. They see right to the heart of a person."Studies show that seniors who own pets have shorter hospital stays than other seniors, suggesting that pets enable older people to better handle stressful events. Older people who own dogs also get more exercise than other seniors.The simple act of petting a dog can lower a person's blood pressure.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pet owners have lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels and reduced feelings of loneliness. Pets also increase opportunities for exercise and socialization.For aging Baby Boomers, pet ownership can help with a number of health concerns, including psychological challenges. Pets can help ward off the depression associated with Empty Nest Syndrome, which many parents have to cope with after their kids have grown up and moved away. Pets can also help an older person overcome feelings of grief and loss after a loved one has died."As we get older and start outliving our friends, our spouses and our siblings, we face tremendous loss and loneliness," Pomerance said. "The unconditional love of a pet can be a great comfort when you're grieving and struggling to deal with a roller coaster of emotions."Friends in need, friends indeedPomerance urges people who want pets to adopt them from an animal shelter. Pet adoptions save thousands of unwanted animals from being euthanized. Saving an animal helps both the person and the pet, she said.But people looking to adopt an animal companion should carefully consider the challenges of taking care of it."It requires a commitment, a responsibility," she said. "People really need to think about the pet's needs and requirements."Seniors should take into consideration any health limitations or housing issues they have that could limit their abilities to care for the animal.Dogs need exercise, a fenced yard and lots of attention. Cats need attention too. All pets need someone to clean up after them -- whether it's changing a litter box or picking up poop in the yard.It's important to match the type of pet to the older person's personality and physical abilities."You may want to consider a middle-aged animal who's pretty mellow and has outgrown the puppy stage," she said. "You want a dog or cat with a temperament that suits yours. There are many considerations. Are you going to resent having to exercise your dog? Then you may want to consider a cat, which still requires some interaction."Barb Huffman, shelter manager of the Casper Humane Society, agrees that pets are great for seniors. She said the animal shelter will help match a person with the right kind of pet."You don't want to send a 90-pound lunker home with an 89-pound woman in a walker," Huffman said.Seniors should also consider the financial obligations of buying pet food and paying for veterinary care."It's probably one of the most rewarding experiences there are for an older person," Pomerance said. "All they require is love and, yeah, a little kibble."
Company is what many seniors need. Having a pet can give an older person a sense of purpose, a reason to exercise and, most of all, a friend.Diane Pomerance, pet specialist and author of "Pet Parenthood: Adopting the Right Animal Companion for you," is a strong advocate of pet ownership for older people who are able to care for a dog or a cat."There are so many health benefits, but basically it's a companionship for somebody who otherwise would be alone or lonely," Pomerance said. "Animals are unconditionally loving. They don't see the IVs, they don't see the wheelchair. They relate on a level that is just intangible. They see right to the heart of a person."Studies show that seniors who own pets have shorter hospital stays than other seniors, suggesting that pets enable older people to better handle stressful events. Older people who own dogs also get more exercise than other seniors.The simple act of petting a dog can lower a person's blood pressure.According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pet owners have lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels and reduced feelings of loneliness. Pets also increase opportunities for exercise and socialization.For aging Baby Boomers, pet ownership can help with a number of health concerns, including psychological challenges. Pets can help ward off the depression associated with Empty Nest Syndrome, which many parents have to cope with after their kids have grown up and moved away. Pets can also help an older person overcome feelings of grief and loss after a loved one has died."As we get older and start outliving our friends, our spouses and our siblings, we face tremendous loss and loneliness," Pomerance said. "The unconditional love of a pet can be a great comfort when you're grieving and struggling to deal with a roller coaster of emotions."Friends in need, friends indeedPomerance urges people who want pets to adopt them from an animal shelter. Pet adoptions save thousands of unwanted animals from being euthanized. Saving an animal helps both the person and the pet, she said.But people looking to adopt an animal companion should carefully consider the challenges of taking care of it."It requires a commitment, a responsibility," she said. "People really need to think about the pet's needs and requirements."Seniors should take into consideration any health limitations or housing issues they have that could limit their abilities to care for the animal.Dogs need exercise, a fenced yard and lots of attention. Cats need attention too. All pets need someone to clean up after them -- whether it's changing a litter box or picking up poop in the yard.It's important to match the type of pet to the older person's personality and physical abilities."You may want to consider a middle-aged animal who's pretty mellow and has outgrown the puppy stage," she said. "You want a dog or cat with a temperament that suits yours. There are many considerations. Are you going to resent having to exercise your dog? Then you may want to consider a cat, which still requires some interaction."Barb Huffman, shelter manager of the Casper Humane Society, agrees that pets are great for seniors. She said the animal shelter will help match a person with the right kind of pet."You don't want to send a 90-pound lunker home with an 89-pound woman in a walker," Huffman said.Seniors should also consider the financial obligations of buying pet food and paying for veterinary care."It's probably one of the most rewarding experiences there are for an older person," Pomerance said. "All they require is love and, yeah, a little kibble."
Pet owners deal with higher spay and neutering cost
SAN JUAN COUNTY — The rising cost of spay and neuter operations is forcing some animal owners to look for alternate solutions.
Some keep their unaltered pets indoors; others dump unwanted litters on the doorsteps of animal shelters or rescue leagues, said Sharon O'Neill, an independent animal rescuer. At any given time, O'Neill has eight stray animals living at her home in Crouch Mesa.
"People drop animals on my doorstep," she said. "They throw them at my house from moving cars."
O'Neill, 55, shelters cats and dogs while she searches for adoptive families. During the 40 years she's rescued animals, she's also taken ferrets, geese, iguanas and tarantulas, but cats and dogs pose the biggest concern, she said.
Without sterilization, dogs and cats can reproduce exponentially — for every person born, 15 dogs and 45 cats are born, according to statistics provided by the Humane Society. One cat and her kittens will breed 400,000 cats in seven years; one
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dog and her puppies will breed 70,000 dogs.
Pet owners and animal rescue leagues claim the rising population comes partly from the increasing cost of spay and neuter operations. Local costs range from $50 to $120 for male cats and from $100 to $140 for female cats.
The cost for the same operations for dogs is calculated by weight. It ranges from $79 for a male weighing less than 24 pounds to $260 for a female heavier than 100 pounds.
"They (operations) are so expensive that someone on a fixed income can't afford it," O'Neill said. "Many of the veterinarians also want the pets to have their shots before the operation, then they look at the health of the pet. When you're done, you've got a bill for $1,200."
O'Neill is disabled and lives on a budget of $800 per month. She can't afford to have her 150-pound timber wolf spayed, so she isolates the animal whenever it's in heat.
The timber wolf already produced a litter of nine puppies, which, because of the species, were almost impossible to place in adopted homes, O'Neill said.
"Every six to eight weeks, when the male dogs start chasing the female dogs, I separate them," she said. "If I don't, I'll have nine more puppies."
O'Neill only takes animals so abused or neglected they will die without help. She's one of several independent rescuers in the county, and most are paying out of pocket for spay or neuter operations.
Clinics see own increases
Veterinarian clinics also are taking a hit, said Amy Dellis, registered veterinary technician at Animal Haven in Farmington. Prices of spay and neuter operations have risen over the last decade, but profits aren't keeping up with the price of supplies, she said.
The cost of spay and neuter operations at Animal Haven has increased by about $15 since 2000, Dellis said. By contrast, the price of anesthesia has more than doubled from $25.73 per bottle to more than $60.
Operations at Animal Haven range from $74 for a male cat to $170 for a female dog heavier than 61 pounds. It's a steep price to pay for a five-minute operation, Dellis said, but the cost includes anesthesia, oxygen and suture materials.
"The price of our supplies has skyrocketed," she said. "Where we take the hit is in the amount of income generated by the doctor's time. The cost has gone up, but the profit has decreased."
The San Juan Animal League offers two options for low- or no-cost operations, said Susan Neale, director of the spay/neuter program. Low-income pet owners can apply for a voucher funded by a private grant, or reimbursement of the cost of the operation paid by local donations.
The voucher program is available only to dogs, Neale said. The animal league applied for a PetSmart grant to pay for cat operations, but was turned down because the county lacks a low-cost spay and neuter clinic.
The closest thing to a low-cost clinic is Baker's Bridge, a Durango-based veterinarian office that does sterilization operations on male and female cats for $55, Neale said, but the drive is too far for many San Juan County animal owners.
"PetSmart liked our program, but they wanted their dollars to go further," Neale said.
Even with a grant to subsidize cat operations, the money wouldn't cover medical needs of feral animals, Neale said. The spay/neuter program works on a $12,000 annual budget and restricts its programs to domestic animals. It also limits vouchers or rebates to three animals per household per year.
"We're over budget now," Neale said. "We would do feral cats if we could, but if we took those on, people feeding feral cats would use up all of our money."
No time to ignore issue
Ignoring the feral animal problem is not the solution, said Gina Rendon, an elderly woman who feeds as many as 75 feral cats.
"The reason I feed them is so they stay out of the road," she said. "If you feed a pet, they go to sleep rather than wandering into the road and making that look bad and possibly costing human life."
Rendon adopted six stray cats and four stray dogs, and she had each one sterilized, but she doesn't have the money to do the same for all the stray animals that frequent her acre of land in Kirtland.
"A lot of senior citizens take care of stray animals," she said. "We have a habit of taking care of something, but $75 for a spay or neuter operation can really hurt if we're on Social Security."
Neglecting the operations isn't the answer, either, Animal Haven's Dellis said. Spay and neuter operations lessen medical problems and lead to better quality of life, she said.
"We promote spay and neuter because it's good medicine," she said. "The premise that we have is that having an animal is a privilege, and if you're not able to meet the needs, you should not have an animal."
The county needs a low-cost spay and neuter clinic, said Kathleen Maestas, founder of El Dorado No-Kill Animal Sanctuary. Before municipalities enforce a mandatory sterilization law, there must be a way to afford the operations, she said.
"If there was some affordable way to do this, we wouldn't have this problem," she said.
Some keep their unaltered pets indoors; others dump unwanted litters on the doorsteps of animal shelters or rescue leagues, said Sharon O'Neill, an independent animal rescuer. At any given time, O'Neill has eight stray animals living at her home in Crouch Mesa.
"People drop animals on my doorstep," she said. "They throw them at my house from moving cars."
O'Neill, 55, shelters cats and dogs while she searches for adoptive families. During the 40 years she's rescued animals, she's also taken ferrets, geese, iguanas and tarantulas, but cats and dogs pose the biggest concern, she said.
Without sterilization, dogs and cats can reproduce exponentially — for every person born, 15 dogs and 45 cats are born, according to statistics provided by the Humane Society. One cat and her kittens will breed 400,000 cats in seven years; one
Advertisement
GetAd('tile','box','/news_article','','www.daily-times.com','','null','null');
dog and her puppies will breed 70,000 dogs.
Pet owners and animal rescue leagues claim the rising population comes partly from the increasing cost of spay and neuter operations. Local costs range from $50 to $120 for male cats and from $100 to $140 for female cats.
The cost for the same operations for dogs is calculated by weight. It ranges from $79 for a male weighing less than 24 pounds to $260 for a female heavier than 100 pounds.
"They (operations) are so expensive that someone on a fixed income can't afford it," O'Neill said. "Many of the veterinarians also want the pets to have their shots before the operation, then they look at the health of the pet. When you're done, you've got a bill for $1,200."
O'Neill is disabled and lives on a budget of $800 per month. She can't afford to have her 150-pound timber wolf spayed, so she isolates the animal whenever it's in heat.
The timber wolf already produced a litter of nine puppies, which, because of the species, were almost impossible to place in adopted homes, O'Neill said.
"Every six to eight weeks, when the male dogs start chasing the female dogs, I separate them," she said. "If I don't, I'll have nine more puppies."
O'Neill only takes animals so abused or neglected they will die without help. She's one of several independent rescuers in the county, and most are paying out of pocket for spay or neuter operations.
Clinics see own increases
Veterinarian clinics also are taking a hit, said Amy Dellis, registered veterinary technician at Animal Haven in Farmington. Prices of spay and neuter operations have risen over the last decade, but profits aren't keeping up with the price of supplies, she said.
The cost of spay and neuter operations at Animal Haven has increased by about $15 since 2000, Dellis said. By contrast, the price of anesthesia has more than doubled from $25.73 per bottle to more than $60.
Operations at Animal Haven range from $74 for a male cat to $170 for a female dog heavier than 61 pounds. It's a steep price to pay for a five-minute operation, Dellis said, but the cost includes anesthesia, oxygen and suture materials.
"The price of our supplies has skyrocketed," she said. "Where we take the hit is in the amount of income generated by the doctor's time. The cost has gone up, but the profit has decreased."
The San Juan Animal League offers two options for low- or no-cost operations, said Susan Neale, director of the spay/neuter program. Low-income pet owners can apply for a voucher funded by a private grant, or reimbursement of the cost of the operation paid by local donations.
The voucher program is available only to dogs, Neale said. The animal league applied for a PetSmart grant to pay for cat operations, but was turned down because the county lacks a low-cost spay and neuter clinic.
The closest thing to a low-cost clinic is Baker's Bridge, a Durango-based veterinarian office that does sterilization operations on male and female cats for $55, Neale said, but the drive is too far for many San Juan County animal owners.
"PetSmart liked our program, but they wanted their dollars to go further," Neale said.
Even with a grant to subsidize cat operations, the money wouldn't cover medical needs of feral animals, Neale said. The spay/neuter program works on a $12,000 annual budget and restricts its programs to domestic animals. It also limits vouchers or rebates to three animals per household per year.
"We're over budget now," Neale said. "We would do feral cats if we could, but if we took those on, people feeding feral cats would use up all of our money."
No time to ignore issue
Ignoring the feral animal problem is not the solution, said Gina Rendon, an elderly woman who feeds as many as 75 feral cats.
"The reason I feed them is so they stay out of the road," she said. "If you feed a pet, they go to sleep rather than wandering into the road and making that look bad and possibly costing human life."
Rendon adopted six stray cats and four stray dogs, and she had each one sterilized, but she doesn't have the money to do the same for all the stray animals that frequent her acre of land in Kirtland.
"A lot of senior citizens take care of stray animals," she said. "We have a habit of taking care of something, but $75 for a spay or neuter operation can really hurt if we're on Social Security."
Neglecting the operations isn't the answer, either, Animal Haven's Dellis said. Spay and neuter operations lessen medical problems and lead to better quality of life, she said.
"We promote spay and neuter because it's good medicine," she said. "The premise that we have is that having an animal is a privilege, and if you're not able to meet the needs, you should not have an animal."
The county needs a low-cost spay and neuter clinic, said Kathleen Maestas, founder of El Dorado No-Kill Animal Sanctuary. Before municipalities enforce a mandatory sterilization law, there must be a way to afford the operations, she said.
"If there was some affordable way to do this, we wouldn't have this problem," she said.
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