Insurers scrutinize owners of dangerous dogs

Chris Jones

Wednesday, April 3, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

Insurers are paying more attention to the nation's dog owners, some of whom could find themselves without homeowners' insurance coverage if they own dangerous dogs, an industry executive said Tuesday.

Over the last few years, increases in dog bites in the United States have caused some insurers to deny homeowners' coverage to owners of certain breeds of dogs, said Alejandra Soto, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Information Institute (III), a trade organization in New York. Along with mold damage, dog attacks are now one of the leading causes of home policy claims in the nation.

Nationwide Insurance -- an Ohio-based insurer that held about 1 percent of the Nevada's homeowners' insurance market last year -- won't cover homeowners who keep Rottweilers, Dobermans, pit bulls or other animals it considers dangerous.

And thanks to heightened awareness of dog attacks caused by intense media coverage of last month's trial and conviction of a San Francisco couple whose dogs fatally mauled a neighbor early last year, Soto expects other insurers could soon follow Nationwide's example.

"I don't suspect that tomorrow companies will begin to put out lists (of banned dogs) like Nationwide did, but they might begin to consider it, at least for the short term," Soto said. "(Insurers) are not trying to exclude a particular breed because they're more vicious, but if a pit bull bites you it's going to do more damage than a Chihuahua because (a pit bull) is a stronger dog."

The state Health Division said nearly 1,900 dog bite incidents were reported in Nevada from 1999 to 2001. Those attacks resulted in more than $5.1 million in hospital charges for both inpatient and outpatient services.

Fire Insurance Exchange, a division of Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Group and the largest provider of homeowners' insurance in Nevada, said it's evaluating policyholders on a case-by-case basis while reserving the right to discontinue a policy if it determines an animal is a significant risk, a company spokesman said.

State Farm, Allstate and AAA Nevada -- which rank second, third and fourth, respectively, in the Nevada homeowners' insurance market -- have similar case-by-case policies regarding dog owners, representatives of the companies said Tuesday.

"There's nothing in our guidelines about dogs, except where we have a record of claims resulting from a problem dog," said Joe Gacioch, corporate relations manager for Allstate in Nevada. "It's all on the basis of claim history." And Gus Miranda, a spokesman for State Farm, said his company won't neccesarily drop a policyholder -- even if their animal attacks a human.

"Everything will be based on the incident, such as whether or not the dog has a history of this behavior or if it was provoked," Miranda said.

In Southern Nevada, the dog attack issue hit close to home Jan. 23 when an 11-year-old Clark County boy was mauled as he fed four Great Danes owned by a neighbor. The boy spent nearly three weeks recovering from the attack at University Medical Center. While updated national numbers won't become available until later this year, III said there were about 4.7 million dog bite incidents reported in the United States in 1999.

Such attacks cost the nation's property and casualty insurers an estimated $310 million last year, III said. Factor in medical claims and other expenses, and dog attacks cost the nation's insurers more than $1 billion each year, said the Insurance Information Network of California, a non-profit organization supported by the insurance industry.

"This is costing (insurers) a lot more money than it did 10 years ago," Soto said.