Although the United States is home to millions of pets, the number of pet owners with pet insurance is dismally low compared to the figures of several European countries. The percentage of pet owners in the United States who have pet insurance is up from a paltry 1% (circa 2000) to a current high of just over 5% which is still shockingly dismal compared to countries such as England (20%) and Sweden (49%)! These figures may in part explain why more than 7 million pets are euthanized in the United States every year.
What Is Pet Insurance
So just what is pet insurance and why should you as a pet owner bother getting it? Pet insurance is the animal equivalent of health insurance for people and is designed to protect your pet against any illness or injury that may befall it in the future. Veterinary medicine advances are on par with those of human medicine which means that vets are now able to diagnose and treat conditions that in the past would have meant your pet had no other option than to be put down (euthanized).
Financial Cost Of Having No Pet Insurance
Those advances in veterinary medicine mean that vet clinics are now equipped with high-tech, sophisticated equipment which by necessity also means that the cost of running such a clinic has gone up. And guess what? Your vet has to offset those costs somehow and one doesn't have to be a genius to figure out how that's done...ultimately passed on to you, the pet owner and end-consumer! Such escalating veterinary medicine fees obviously make getting pet insurance very good sense; the vet fees for treating an uninsured animal could easily run into thousands of dollars these days!
Emotional Cost Of Not Having Pet insurance
One of the things you must seriously consider as a pet owner is exactly what your pet means to you. If you treat and consider your pet as a valued family member then pet insurance should be high on your list of priorities if you don't already have it. Just imagine having to deal with the guilt of having the beloved family pet euthanized all because you never bothered to get coverage that would have cost a measly $10-$30 per month. And don't even think about how your kids would take it...just pray they never find out that their lovable bundle of fur would still be alive today if he'd only been covered by insurance!
If on the other hand you pretty much don't care for your pet then not only is pet insurance not for you, you should seriously reconsider whether you should have a pet at all. Far too many people treat their pets as disposable amusement objects; once they get tired of them they get rid of them, a fact that goes a long way to explain the burgeoning number of animals in shelters and the millions of pets euthanized each year! In the long run pet insurance could one day be the difference between life and death for your pet!
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I am searching pet insurance for my dogs
By: CORA | 17-07-2008
I am searching pet insurance for my dogs, which are 4 and 5 years old. We live in Texas.
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