Pets!
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"Nah, he's not so smart," the friend replied. "I've beaten him three games out of five."
Pet insurance
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008)Pet Insurance pays the veterinary costs if one's pet becomes ill or is injured in an accident. Some policies will also pay out when the pet dies, or if it's lost or stolen.
The purpose of pet insurance is to mitigate the risk of incurring significant expense to treat ill or injured pets. As veterinary medicine is increasingly employing expensive medical techniques and drugs, and owners have higher expectations for their pets' health care and standard of living than previously, the market for pet insurance has increased.
Pet insurance History
The first pet insurance policy was written in 1890 by Claes Virgin. Virgin was the founder of Länsförsäkrings Alliance, at that time he focused on horses and livestock. In 1947 the first pet insurance policy was sold in Britain. Today Britain has the second-highest level of pet insurance in the world (23%), behind only Sweden.Pet insurance How policies work
Many pet owners believe pet insurance is a variation of human health insurance; however, pet insurance is actually a form of property insurance. As such, pet insurance reimburses the owner after the pet has received care and the owner submits a claim to the insurance company.UK Policies usually pay 100% of vets fees. Policies in the USA usually offer to pay 80-90% of the costs minus a deductible depending on the company and the specific policy. The owner will usually pay the amount due to the Vet, and then send in the claim form and receive reimbursement, which some companies and policies limit according to their own schedule of necessary and usual charges. In the event of a very high bill, some veterinarians will allow the owner to put off payment until the insurance claim is processed. Some insurers pay veterinarians directly on behalf of customers. Most U.S. policies require the pet owner to submit a request for fees incurred.
Traditionally, most pet insurance plans did not pay for preventative care (such as vaccinations) or elective procedures (such as neutering). Recently however, some companies in the UK and US are offering routine care coverage, or some times called comprehensive coverage.
In addition, companies often limit coverage for pre-existing conditions in order to eliminate fraudulent consumers, thus giving owners an incentive to insure even very young animals who are not expected to incur high veterinary costs while they are still healthy.
Some insurers offer options not directly related to pet health, including covering boarding costs for animals whose owners are hospitalized, or costs (such as rewards or posters) associated with retrieving lost animals. Some policies also include travel cancellation coverage if owners must remain with pets who need urgent treatment or are dying.
Some UK policies for dogs also include third party liability insurance. Thus, for example, if a dog causes a car accident that damages a vehicle, the insurer will pay to rectify the damage for which the owner is responsible under the Animals Act 1971.
Pet insurance difference between companies
The smart consumer will always check the details before signing up for a policy which may not cover your animal's condition. Some companies will use a benefit schedule covering only what they think a given procedure is worth. Other companies will not cover hereditary conditions. Finally, some companies will not renew your policy at the end of a given term or will consider a condition pre-existing after renewing your yearly contract and then refuse to cover the illness. Despite these set-backs, pet insurance can provide financial support enabling the dedicated pet owner to not factor in economic considerations while life-saving care is needed.Pet doors
A pet door is a hinged or spring operated door rather than the more commonly known 'flap' set into a door, wall or window to allow pets to enter and exit a house on their own without needing a human to open the door. Flaps are hung from the top of the opening and do exactly that - flap. Pet doors generally must be bigger than cat flaps and therefore are often constructed differently. Except in rural areas, they tend to give access to fenced-in yards or gardens rather than the neighbourhood at large.Pet doors are found to be convenient by many pet owners, because it lets their pets come and go as they please, reducing the need for trips outside and unwanted behaviour such as the pet scratching on doors or walls or excreting in the house.
Pet doors are generally designed to be safe for any pet. The panels are often designed with soft vinyl that does not trap or injure the dog. Dog doors also sometimes consist of permanent magnets to reduce drafts. Cheap easily replaceable pet doors are made from plastic and as such are not robust enough for boisterous pets.
Pet Patio doors
Dog doors and cat flaps can be built into structures called patio door pet doors. These structures are intended to be installed in existing sliding patio doors so that there is no need to make holes in walls or wooden entrance doors. An advantage of the patio door pet door is that it need not be permanently installed; it can be transported with the owner when the owner moves to a new home. These doors can be made from thermo-plastics or aluminum and can be found in different colours to match the opening they are placed in. It is important to remember that patio pet doors should be removed when on vacation or long periods when you are away as they are not as secure and can be removed from the outside.Pet sitting
The professional pet-sitting industry is growing rapidly because many pet owners feel that there are advantages to using pet sitters, rather than traditional pet care options. Reasons people use pet sitters include:Possible reduced stress on pets because pets are cared for in their own homes
No "travel trauma" to pets because they do not need to be transported anywhere
Exposure to illnesses and parasites of other animals is minimized
Required vaccinations are often less restrictive then those necessary at a kennel
Pets stay on their regular routines and do not need to adapt to a new environment
No inconveniencing neighbours, friends, or family members
Professional pet sitters are often licensed, and insured for liability including care, custody, and control of the pets in their care. Many pet sitters are also bonded or insured for theft. Pet sitters usually have training, such as pet first aid certification, animal husbandry classes, or pet sitting accreditation. A number of professional organizations exist to help pet sitters improve their services.
In many areas, no special occupational license is required for pet sitters. The term "licensed" is often used by pet sitting professionals to refer to licenses to do business, kennel licenses, and/or animal transportation permits available within the coverage area of the business. These licenses may or may not be required, depending on the location. Licenses are not available in all areas.
Pet sitting Services
There are many different services which can be offered by pet sitters.Pet sitting during Vacation
During vacation pet sitting, a pet sitter visits a client's home several times, as required. The exact length of visit is determined by both pet owners and pet sitters, averaging about fifteen to forty-five minutes. Most pet sitters bill clients on a per-visit basis, including additional charges for multiple pets, travel expenses, and special tasks. Less commonly, pet sitters offer live-in care.Dog walking
Pet sitters also provide dog walking services. Disabled clients and the elderly often hire pet sitters to exercise and care for their pets if they are unable to do so.Pet sitters may also offer other more aggressive methods of exercise for dogs during dog walking appointments. These may include jogging, running, inline skating, bicycling, or dog scootering with client dogs.
Pet sitting Other services
Pet sitters also provide some home sitting services for clients, tending plants, and giving homes a "lived-in" look to deter crime.Pet sitters are sometimes hired to transport pets.
Pet sitters sometimes provide pooper scooper services for client yards.
Insurance and bonding
Pet sitting Insurance
Most professional pet sitters are insured through nationwide Pet Sitter insurance providers.As of 2007, the major American and Canadian pet sitting insurance providers include claim limits from 2 million to 4 million per claim for liability claims. They also include coverage for care, custody, and control of the client pets from $10,000 to $200,000 per occurrence. Coverage is included for fire damage, lost keys, and other negligence claims. Because many North American pet sitting insurers do not provide coverage to minors, most professional pet sitters are over eighteen years of age.
As of 2007, the major UK pet sitting insurance providers include similar claim coverages as the USA providers. The limits for liability claims range from £750 to £10,000.
Most pet sitter insurance plans provide coverage for pet transport. They also provide services for most animals, except those that may be used for other business ventures, including farming.
Some resources recommend that pet sitters be bonded. That recommendation has been dismissed by many professional organizations in recent years.
Pet sitter Bonding
A dishonesty or fidelity bond claim generally applies when a pet sitter is convicted in criminal court of theft from a client home. When the pet sitter is convicted, the bond will reimburse the client for the loss, and then seek reimbursement from the pet sitter. This process often requires many years, and usually relies on a criminal law court conviction.Many pet sitters have decided to seek actual insurance coverage for theft instead of procuring a bond. Theft insurance coverage does not require convictions, and usually includes coverage for accidental breakage, mysterious disappearance, and accidental damage to items in a client home.
Pet sitting Other insurance topics
Pet sitters are generally not protected from injury to themselves by regular pet sitting liability coverage. Pet sitter liability insurance usually covers injury to other people and other pets.Pets
Pets and humans each often contribute toward the happiness of the other in a pet relationship. Pet owners and their pets are likely to have longer and happier lives. A pet or companion animal is an animal kept for companionship and enjoyment, as opposed to livestock, laboratory animals, working animals or sport animals, which are kept for economic reasons. The most popular pets are noted for their loyal or playful characteristics, for their attractive appearance, or for their song. Pets also generally seem to provide their owners with non-trivial health benefits; keeping pets has been shown to help relieve stress. There is now a medically-approved class of "therapy animals," mostly dogs, who are brought to visit confined humans. Walking a dog can provide both the owner and the dog with exercise, fresh air, and social interaction.Koko the gorilla is one of few examples of a non-human animal which has had an explicit pet. Using sign language, she requested a cat; her first pet was a kitten named All Ball, to which she was reported to be quite attached and mourned for several days after the cat escaped and was killed by a car.
Pet Domestication
While in theory any animal might be a pet, in practice only a small number of species of mammals (especially dogs and cats) and other small animals, such as birds, fish, or lizards, are practical. One reason for this is that large animals are not able to fit inside small dwellings. The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.In general, a pet must either be small enough (or easily controlled) for his or her undesirable behavioral tendencies to be negligible, or the animal must be actually domesticable. Examples of the former are such animals as fish (including carnivorous ones such as piranha), chickens, invertebrates or small mammals.
A few animals are sufficiently capable of adapting to human interaction to be considered domesticable. Dogs ("man's best friend") are considered to be a classic example of domesticated animals normally suited to being pets. Domestic dogs are quite similar to wolves, but their physical form and behavior are characteristically different, more than mere differences in size, coat, or coloring. Behaviorally speaking, characteristic changes in dogs due to domestication include a prolonged infancy, increased playfulness, and barking. Wolves are far less playful and don't bark. The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.
Domestic cats appear to be less changed behaviorally by their association with humans, in comparison; however, they do fit the example of an animal being small enough to control. The same hunting tendencies that make domestic cats useful for control of vermin make its larger, wild relatives too dangerous for domestication. Even small wild felines, such as bobcats or ocelots, can seriously injure or kill a human. The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.
Primates have a wide variety of properties that can lead to being good pets, but most species have certain characteristics that exclude them from being ideal pets. Common chimpanzees especially males are not willing to allow humans to "take the lead" when they are adults, and as a result, they make for poor pets. Gorillas, mainly female ones, are rather better in this respect, though considerably larger. Bonobos, being more social than common chimpanzees, may be more suited to being pets when adult, but exhibit overt sexual behavior which is not accepted from pets in most human societies. The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.
Many horses and related animals are suitable for human companionship as pets or work animals, while zebras, otherwise quite similar, are not. Zebras use biting as a means of expressing conflict within the herd, and this behavior seems quite unchangeable. By human standards, the biting would be rather savage. Horses and donkeys, on the other hand, don't have a biting habit quite as deep-seated or dangerous.
Many rodents such as fancy rats, fancy mice, and syrian hamsters are commonly kept as household pets. The examples and perspective in this section may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.
Animals such as reptiles are typically considered exotic pets. This may change in the future, as 'exotic' pet ownership is increasing rapidly. Some of these animals, such as green iguanas, large monitor lizard species, and large boids, do not make suitable pets for the average person as they require extensive housing and diet. They can also become quite aggressive if not regularly handled. Exotic mammals are also becoming increasingly more popular as pets. For example, the domesticated hedgehog has been selectively bred to the point where its physical characteristics no longer directly match its wild European and African counterparts.
Many animal species are difficult to handle and cannot be pets for the general populace. Raptors, such as eagles and falcons, must be handled very carefully to avoid attacks on their handlers; the sport of falconry is to a large extent ways of avoiding such outcomes, and so they are not really pets in the sense meant here. Large cats cannot become pets, as they do not reliably restrain their impulses (although cheetahs are an exception and have been kept as pets in the past). Nor do the large bears, for similar reasons. Small monkeys can be human companions, but they are notoriously unable to defer their curiosity which leads to much destruction. Several of the ferret and otter varieties can be human companions. Raccoons also fit this example. They adapt easily to almost any environment, but resist domestication.
A pet can be acquired from an animal shelter, a breeder, and from private transactions, typically due to the giving away of extra newborns after the birth of a litter.
Pet Terminology
In veterinary medicine, dogs and cats are often considered "household" pets, while all other animals are grouped into either "farm animals" (such as horses, cows, or sheep) or "exotics" (including pocket pets, birds, and reptiles).Pet restrictions
Many cities and towns have local ordinances limiting the number of pets a person may have, and may also restrict or forbid certain pets (such as fowl or exotics).The cities of Berkeley, California and Boulder, Colorado have passed laws stating that people who have pets do not "own" them; rather, they are the pet's "guardian."
Condominium associations and rental properties often ban animals because of the smells and noise the animals create.
Pet popularity
The two most popular pets in most Western countries have been cats and dogs. In the United States, census data shows that dogs are slightly more popular based on the number of households, but that the number of pet cats is almost twice as high as dogs. The next most popular pets are birds followed by horses.Pet Overpopulation
Animal protection advocates call attention to the pet overpopulation "crisis" in the United States. According to the Humane Society of the United States, 3-4 million dogs and cats are euthanized each year in the country and many more are confined to cages in shelters. This crisis is created by nonneutered animals (spayed/castrated) reproducing and people intentionally breeding animals. A particularly problematic combination of economic hardship combined with a love of animals contributes to this problem in parts of the rural United States. In an average year, a fertile cat can produce three litters of kittens, with up to 4 to 6 kittens in each litter. Based on these numbers, one female cat and her offspring could produce up to 420,000 cats over a seven year period if not spayed or castrated. There are also major overpopulation problems with other pet species, such as birds and rabbits. Local humane societies, SPCAs, and other animal protection organizations urge people to neuter their pets and to adopt animals from animal shelters instead of purchasing them from breeders or pet stores.Effects of pets on health
Pet Health benefits
Pets have the ability to stimulate their caregivers, in particular the elderly, giving people someone to take care of, someone to exercise with, and someone to help them heal from a physically or psychologically troubled past. Having a pet may help people achieve health goals, such as lowered blood pressure, or mental goals, such as decreased stress. There appears to be strong evidence that having a pet can help a person lead a longer, healthier life. In a study of 92 people hospitalized for coronary ailments, within a year, 11 of the 29 without pets had passed away, but only 3 of the 52 who had pets.Pets in long-term care institutions
Even pet owners residing in a long-term care facility, such as a hospice or nursing home, experience health benefits from pets. Pets for nursing homes are chosen based on the size of the pet, the amount of care that the breed needs, and the population and size of the care institution. Appropriate pets go through a screening process and, if it is a dog, additional training programs to become a therapy dog.Different pets require varying amouns of attention and care; for example, cats are have lower maintenance requirements than dogs. Dogs, on the other hand, tend to be more trainable and people-friendly.
Pet and human Health risks
Health risks that are associated with pets include:Aggravation of allergies and asthma
Injuries (and, rarely) deaths caused by pet's bites
Disease or parasites due to animal hygiene problems
Pets and allergies
Some people with allergies can have adverse reactions to animal dander and fur or feathers. Some people with asthma can have attacks triggered by these. However, research supports that people who have been exposed to dogs and cats as pets from an early age may develop an immunoresistance to these allergens.
