Pets Killed by Their Owners for Insurance Cash

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Pets Killed by Their Owners for Insurance Cash

November 17, 2011 08:10 AM EST



http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474980781322

An alarming and sick trend is on the rise in England with cash strapped pet owners that's so horrendous, it's unthinkable. Insurance companies report the rise in people selling or even killing their pets for insurance money. The latest figures show that fake compensation claims for domestic animals have gone up nearly four times since 2009.

The dishonest claims on animal policies has made this the fastest growing area of insurance crime. Some pet owners are purposely harming their animals for the false insurance claims, according to the Mirror UK. Some pets "mysteriously disappear" when it comes to collecting the insurance claims.

Inflated bills for unnecessary treatment and expensive treatments given to pets, led investigators to believe some vets are also in on the insurance scams. Investigators also report claims for pets that never existed. While insurance fraud is bad, the harming and killing of an animal is unthinkable.

The insurance companies are creating a data base to better watch this type of fraudulent activity.

[Fumesucker]

1. A sign of the times..

:cry:

[The Straight Story]

2. If they were smart they would bury them up on the hill in the pet cemetary

Come back to life, new policy, rinse, repeat.

[tblue]

3. You can insure your pet?

That's just asking for abuses like this.

[The Straight Story]

4. Wonder if I could insure a cow, I could get paid to eat steak

:hide:

[AngryAmish]

5. Silas Jayne

Sold horses, killed horses for insurance money, killed a bunch of folks.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Those weren't pets though

They were more like a bunch of worthless old swaybacks one step away from the glue factory that were insured as valuable show horses as someone would insure any expensive piece of property just to collect the insurance money.

Don

[bklyncowgirl]

9. I would imagine that a valuable show dog would be insured. nt

[NNN0LHI]

14. Most of the breeders I know don't really look at their valuable show dogs as pets either

Some probably do. But the ones I know generally look at them as property. It is business to them. They don't seem to get real attached to their show dogs. If the dog they thought was going to show real well doesn't turn out for some reason they sell them off. We had a male Keeshond we bought that way. He was really gorgeous. He could have been a champion. But he was growly. Not mean or a biter. Just a little growly. When the judge would come up to look at his teeth he would snarl at him. Not good so his show ring career had to end. I discovered after having him that he just didn't like anyone hovering over him. Made him uncomfortable. We just learned to humor him and ignore it. He was a great dog.

Don

[NNN0LHI]

6. I have health insurance on my dog but this article reads like there is life insurance available?

Never heard of life insurance for a dog before.

The health insurance is cheap and the premiums never go up.

Lot of stuff it doesn't cover and there are limits though. I usually break out about even with it every year.

Don

[truebrit71]

10. Me too....can't imagine getting life insurance for my four-legged friend though...

..Who do you use?

[NNN0LHI]

12. VPI

Been pretty happy with them for a few years.

Don

[truebrit71]

13. Thanks!

n/t

[get the red out]

11. I have health insurance on my dog also

The idea of harming or killing her for money.....dear God, someone please shoot ME first.

[bklyncowgirl]

8. There was a big scandal back in the 80s where show horses were being killed for insurance $.

It was quite a little growth industry in the high toned horse show world.

There was a guy called the "Sandman" who for a price would come out and electrocute good old, overinsured Dobbin in his stall, thus giving old Dobbin's owner a hefty paycheck. Eventually the insurance companies caught on and a bunch of people went to jail. One of the top open jumper riders, a guy named Bernie Ward, who used to fix up cash strapped show horse owners with the Sandman, to this day is banned from going anywhere near a horse show.

Here's a bizzare side note. The guy who cooked up this scheme was an insurance salesman who taught this guy how to kill a horse without leaving any traces of foul play. His first victim was his daughter's own champion show horse. The daughter's name was Rielle Hunter. Yes THAT Rielle Hunter. John Edward's baby mama.

Ain't it a small world!

[snagglepuss]

15. That is really one interesting tidbit of information. It explains a lot about

Rielle.

[supernova]

16. Ugh. thanks for the seedy background info

:puke:

I used to be able to tangentially observe the show dog world, because my SiL was into showing Alaskan Malamutes. What struck me was how little all of it had to do with loving the animals. It was all about money and status for the humans. Turned me completely off the show animal world.

[Octafish]

18. You may enjoy ''Best in Show''

Written by Christopher Guest, its cast includes Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218839/

You might not want to share it with your SiL, however.

[bklyncowgirl]

19. That was a great movie.

I haven't had anything to do with the dog show world but I have shown horses and some of the scenes had me laughing out loud.

[xchrom]

17. that's creepy just for the 'small small world' part. nt