Insurance Industry Breed Bans

The insurance industry is clamping down on dog owners. Two tactics are being used:

Banning sales of policies to owners of certain breeds. (To read more about excluding dog bites from coverage, see Insurance for the dog owner.)

Excluding dog bites and other dog inflicted injuries from coverage (in other words, the dog owner is covered for other things, but not canine inflicted injuries).

Currently, owners of pit bulls and Rottweilers have the most trouble finding insurance. Most companies look suspiciously at those breeds. See generally, Humane Society of the United States, "Insurance Companies Unfairly Target Specific Dog Breeds," January 2005. Some companies have a comprehensive list. Here is the list from Automobile Club:

Pit Bulls & Rottweilers (No full bred or mix) Akita - including Japanese and Akita Inu Bernese - including Mountain Dog, Berner Sennenhund and Bernese Cattle Dog Canary Dogs - including Perro de Presa Canario Chow Chow Doberman Husky - including American, Eskimo and Greenland (Siberian is OK) Karelian Bear Dog Rhodesian Ridgeback Russo-European Laika - including Russian Laika and Karelian Bear Laika Any breed of guard dog trained to attack Wolf Hybrids The foregoing applies to both purebred and mixed breed dogs.