A man has warned dog owners to check their pet insurance policies after he was shocked when his claim for his XL Bully-Dogue de Bordeaux cross was rejected.
Nicholas Doherty, 41, from Southport, took out pet insurance with Asda last year for his three year old dog, Pharaoh, registering him as a ‘large cross-breed’ and making it clear that the dog was part XL Bully, reports Liverpool Echo.
When new rules on XL Bully ownership came into effect on December 31, Nicholas asked Asda if Pharaoh’s insurance policy was still valid, as it is a legal requirement for XL Bully owners to have public liability insurance for their dogs.
He said: “We thought we were doing everything right as responsible dog owners.”
An Asda representative told him they would contact the underwriters and get back to him. However, when Pharaoh fell ill with an ear infection, Nicholas was shocked to find out that the policy he’d paid for wasn’t valid. Asda wouldn’t cover Pharaoh’s £471 vet bill.
Mr Doherty said: “I was told they’d cancelled the policy because of his breed. There was no warning, no correspondence. They’d just cancelled it without telling me. And they’d taken my money. “
“It’s pure negligence. There’s us thinking he’s covered. As far as they knew, we’d been walking the streets without proper public liability insurance.”
Mr Doherty, who had taken extra caution by paying an additional £25 a year for public liability insurance from Dogs’ Trust, now has to look for new insurance cover for Pharaoh his lovable dog whom he calls “daft as a brush and very friendly”, adopted from Birkenhead Kennels a year back.
With confusion over whether Dogs’ Trust insurance covers vets bills, he said: “I’ve been put in a real predicament. I’m going to have to start looking around to see if anyone can take him on.”
An Asda spokesperson remarked: “Any change to our customers’ policies should be communicated to them immediately and we apologise that this hasn’t happened.
“We are looking into Mr Doherty’s case to understand why this was the case and we will process a full refund for any payments taken in error.”
