Andy Woodward, a sheriff’s deputy in Douglas County, Nebraska, works with Diezel, a Belgian Malinois police dog. Woodward is required to keep Diezel in his home, as is common for police dogs.
But when his insurance company, American Family Insurance, did an annual home inspection this summer, the agent said they didn’t write homeowner’s policies for people with aggressive dogs. Woodward told them the sheriff’s department has a liability policy for its dogs, and thought everything was okay. Then he got a letter saying American Family was dropping him.
Alarmed at the thought of being uninsured, Woodward got a policy from another company, one that apparently doesn’t share American Family’s grim view of police dogs, attack dogs, and breeds such as Akitas, Rottweilers, chows, etc. (Insurance breed discrimination may also include labs and German shepherds.) He also mentioned it to his union, the Fraternal Order of Police, and they didn’t take it well. They threatened that their over 325,000 members would boycott American Family.
Wait!
No! No! Wait! No! An “unfortunate misunderstanding”! It was just that we wanted him to show us that the dog was covered by the department’s liability insurance, that’s all. That’s what they said Wednesday.
We also offer auto and life. And squirrel. You so need squirrel insurance.
Thursday they realized that wasn’t good enough. “The miscommunication was on our part,” said a company spokesperson. “This is something that should have been a relatively easy process, and it turned into a hardship for Mr. Woodward. For that, we truly do apologize.” He said the company was going to revisit its practices and change how its guidelines about aggressive dogs are interpreted. “Those guidelines weren’t intended to cover households with police dogs.” So they’re apologizing for what happened, and they’re taking steps to make sure it doesn’t happen to anyone else.
Much better. Except they didn’t say it to Woodward. Who’s insured but still upset about people misunderstanding Diezel.
Woodward deserves a direct apology. And Diezel deserves a snack, because I hear he’s a good dog.
Insurance companies are evil…
Who’s a good dog? Diezel’s a good dog!
Too bad we can’t rub American Family’s nose in the mess it made.
So they’ll make an exception for police dogs (which really are trained to be agressive, and they are known to attack innocent people from time to time), but they still won’t insure German Shepherds raised as family pets?
None’s comment is very much to the point. Police dogs are in fact trained to be aggressive to people, and mistakes do happen, and the (homeowner’s) insurance company is right not to be willing to accept that liability, which is the proper purview of the department which employs the handler and the dog.
However, breed discrimination with respect to normal pet dogs *is* weaselly insurance company bullshit. There is no evidence whatsoever that certain breeds (American Staffordshire Terriers, AKA “Pitbulls”, for example) are *intrinsically* more human-aggressive than say, Labradors or Chihuahuas.
For an interesting perspective on German Shepards (commonly used as patrol dogs), read a book called “How To Be Your Dog’s Best Friend”, by The Monks of New Skete.
This is bogus. I’ve been insured by the same company for 2 houses for 15 years and never knew about any dog list. I’ve had a chow mix (just died this year) that never bit one person and never would have. I’ve had a pit lab mix that killed a cat once (playing with it, and it turned at me when I tried to get the cat) and we sent the dog to live at another home so as not to harm my small child or other kittens. My Chihuahua has bit (snapped at) a few people, mostly small children who wouldn’t leave her alone or a teenager that we’ve found out is not “good people”. Never once has AF asked about our pets but now I’m concerned for our own financial security!
To judge by the story in the link below, AF distinguishes between new policies and existing policies, so it may be that a longtime customer, your dogs are fine with them — but someone else wanting their first policy from AF might be turned down if their dog was on the BAD DOG list….
http://www.netquote.com/home-insurance/dog_bite_claims.aspx
This is just my opinion, but a dog of any breed that will kill a cat and “turn at” a person attempting to intervene, is a much riskier dog to have around than a dog actually trained to be human-agressive (notwithstanding that patrol dogs can make mistakes), and should undergo *professional* behavior modification, or be euthanized.
Wow, insurance companies will do anything to save themselves a buck, and like all other corporations, they only tend to do the right thing when another organization brings their actions to light. I wonder if working with a local insurance agent would provide better service – in my experience they seem to care more about individuals and are more likely to find the best policy for the person. Thanks!
-James
Are you a local insurance agent, James?