ShelterCare - the $7,500,000 weapon in your armory

The battle to provide lost or unwanted cats and dogs with a safe haven until they can be placed into new and loving homes is one which you fight every day. It is unfortunate that sometimes even after a successful adoption there is still the chance that a new pet may be returned. While there is little that we can do to avoid those returns due to incompatibility or a change of mind we have provided you with a $7,500,000 weapon to help eradicate returns due to the health of the animal – the ShelterCare gift.

The ShelterCare gift is the most widely used gift of pet insurance in the world offering animal welfare organizations the opportunity to transfer the risk of post-adoption veterinary costs to ShelterCare. The success of this gift with the animal welfare community and new adopters is clearly highlighted by the fact that ShelterCare gift paid claims now total more than $7,500,000. Many thousands of new pet parents have the ShelterCare gift to thank for the fact that they could afford to pay for the veterinary treatment required by their newly adopted family member within the 30-day post-adoption period.

On June 1st this year we enhanced the ShelterCare gift by increasing the coverage amount to $750 PLUS we added two new "zero-cost" options for adopters a) the opportunity to extend their 30-day gift of insurance to 45-days and b) the opportunity to include renter's insurance. These changes to the gift have been well received by adopters resulting in a 31% pick up in inbound call volume to our ShelterCare team. This increase should come as great news for both the animal welfare community and those newly adopted animals as it gives us the opportunity to discuss the benefits of pet insurance with more new adopters. As you are aware, people who have insured their pets with ShelterCare for life will not need to return their pet to you due to the cost of their adopted pet's healthcare.

As we settle into an environment in which the majority of people are paying more attention to where their dollars are going it is more important than ever to talk to your adopters about pet insurance - monthly pet insurance is an affordable cost for most but it is a rare pet parent who can afford thousands of dollars to cover their pet's unexpected health costs!! Give us the opportunity to help to keep your returns low - use the ShelterCare gift daily and encourage all of your adopters to call us to take advantage of our new offers.