A Calgary woman claimed that her insurer would not give her homeowners’ insurance on grounds that she owns a pit bull.
Lisa Rideout told
CTV News that she was shopping around for better home insurance rates when she finally got to speak with one insurance company. After answering a few questions with the insurer, she was told that she would get a call back. When the insurer finally got back to her, she was informed that it was not interested in insuring her due to her choice in pets.
“Later on that day I got a phone call from her that said unfortunately we are unable to insure your house due to the fact that you have a pit bull,” Rideout said. “There are three types of dogs that we do not insure, pit bull, German Shephard and rottweilers.”
She was shocked to hear this, since her dog, 13-year-old Chico, has never had a history of hurting people or animals.
“For somebody to tell me that they are not going to insure my house because I own a dog, that is horrible, I don’t think that that is right, he hasn’t done anything, why judge him?”
The
Insurance Bureau of Canada asserts that insurers are within their rights to deny coverage since home insurance policies have to pay out for dog bite claims. As the companies are private, they can set any policy they like, the bureau said.
“There is no legislation in Alberta banning pit bulls or regulating them being out in public like there is in Ontario,” Lena Tityk of Rogers Insurance Brokerage told
CTV News. “They do look at whether an animal is deemed dangerous or whether the probability of a loss with a specific type of animal would happen, so they look at patterns of claims or liability issues.”
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