Charity Insurance AKICOLJ
Apr. 14th, 2012 05:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnOldies Club, and indeed most small dog rescues, has liability insurance with Cliverton, a company which has made a bit of a corner of the market in the area of small volunteer-run rescues. The problem with this is that when they decide to change the rules, it's very difficult to find anywhere else to turn.
This year they have decided to rule that all dogs owned by a rescue must be kept on the lead apart from in the fosterer's house and garden. This is a huge problem for us.
Compared to most rescues, our dogs tend to be in foster longer. This is because a lot of them come in with untreated medical problems that have to be sorted before they can be rehomed, and also because homes for old dogs tend to be a bit thin on the ground a lot of the time. Some of the dogs stay in foster for the rest of their lives, if they turn out to be too ill to rehome. And a lot of our foster homes don't have a lot of space for exercise, but rely on walks. Plus, as we only deal with oldies, almost all of our dogs are in foster homes, we only use kennels if there is no alternative, as older dogs don't tend to do well in that environment.
For some dogs it doesn't make much odds if they are onlead a lot, but keeping the border collies, labs and springer spaniels and crosses thereof, permanently on lead is going to make fostering them a more difficult proposition. And the dogs that could probably do OK onlead in their foster homes are still often dogs that would benefit from being able to exercise more freely (we get a lot that come in undermuscled and overweight after no walking for years - they really benefit from being able to, for example, play ball games in the park, or play freely with other dogs.)
We wondered if it might be possible to take out extra insurance to cover the issue, or if some of our more experienced fosterers might be able to assume liability from the charity for their own foster dogs. Our provider also sells insurance for commercial dogwalkers, and they are allowed to have the dog's owner sign to assume liability if the dog is offlead. But our existing provider is not being helpful in terms of advising on this, and we aren't sure who else to ask. Anyone got any ideas?
This year they have decided to rule that all dogs owned by a rescue must be kept on the lead apart from in the fosterer's house and garden. This is a huge problem for us.
Compared to most rescues, our dogs tend to be in foster longer. This is because a lot of them come in with untreated medical problems that have to be sorted before they can be rehomed, and also because homes for old dogs tend to be a bit thin on the ground a lot of the time. Some of the dogs stay in foster for the rest of their lives, if they turn out to be too ill to rehome. And a lot of our foster homes don't have a lot of space for exercise, but rely on walks. Plus, as we only deal with oldies, almost all of our dogs are in foster homes, we only use kennels if there is no alternative, as older dogs don't tend to do well in that environment.
For some dogs it doesn't make much odds if they are onlead a lot, but keeping the border collies, labs and springer spaniels and crosses thereof, permanently on lead is going to make fostering them a more difficult proposition. And the dogs that could probably do OK onlead in their foster homes are still often dogs that would benefit from being able to exercise more freely (we get a lot that come in undermuscled and overweight after no walking for years - they really benefit from being able to, for example, play ball games in the park, or play freely with other dogs.)
We wondered if it might be possible to take out extra insurance to cover the issue, or if some of our more experienced fosterers might be able to assume liability from the charity for their own foster dogs. Our provider also sells insurance for commercial dogwalkers, and they are allowed to have the dog's owner sign to assume liability if the dog is offlead. But our existing provider is not being helpful in terms of advising on this, and we aren't sure who else to ask. Anyone got any ideas?
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-14 11:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-15 12:03 am (UTC)I think I'd start by phoning the Dogs Trust and similar organisations and seeing if they'd be prepared to help you, simply because charities are sometimes nice to each other and if they were, that could be a shortcut.
Failing that, I'd try a few brokers (maybe even half a dozen) and see what they could say - if they can't offer a policy they might still be able to suggest someone else to try.
no subject
Date: 2012-04-15 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-15 08:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-04-15 10:33 pm (UTC)