Pet food recalls and pet insurance
With all of the latest pet food recalls, the most recent being recalls due to peanut butter contamination, many pet owners are asking “is this covered with my pet insurance?” or “would this be covered with pet insurance?”.
Well, the answer is (and I hate being so vague): it depends.
The answer I got from one company was that if your pet got sick due to the contamination, it would be covered. However, if you know that your pet eats one of the recalled foods, so you decide to get a liver panel done just to make sure (even though they weren’t showing any signs of being sick), and it turns out that he or she is not sick, then this would not be covered.
Essentially with this company, if the pet is sick from the contaminated food, it’s covered.
Other companies I’ve heard of will only reimburse pet owners if the pet owners could prove that they had not received any type of reimbursement for damages from the pet food company itself.
My best advice, if you’re curious or hunting around for pet insurance, is to include the question in your research: if my pet gets sick from contaminated, recalled pet food, would their illness be covered?
