Cats and dogs can be more expensive to insure than a house and contents in the UK

Cats and dog health insurance can cost more than combined home insurance (insuring the building and the contents). It sounds remarkable but here is an example concerning the most popular dog breed in the UK at the moment (2023): the French bulldog.

The French Bulldog is a money pit liability that remains the most popular dog breed in the UK
The French Bulldog is a money pit liability that remains the most popular dog breed in the UK

On my research, to insure a young French bulldog will start at around £20 to £35 a month (£240 per year). However, Which? says that this dog breed costs £358 per year to insure. The golden retriever costs £185 to insure per year.

The average cost of a combined home insurance policy is £162 – up 8% from Q1 2022 when costs were £150 (gocompare.com).

In the USA the average monthly cost to insure a French bulldog is $8! The UK is treasure island according to many businesses and they are correct. It is rip-off island more like.

A French bulldog costs £3,100 to buy and £3,760 to maintain which makes a hefty £6,860 in the first year. You have to be earning good money and have limited outgoings e.g., no mortgage or no kids, to justify that enormous expense from net income. You have to weigh up the positives and negatives to figure out if it is worth owning a Frenchie. I think a lot of adopters don’t know what they are getting into before purchasing. They just aren’t interested.

Maine Coons cost £114 to insure per year. For the Bengal it is £105. The cost of pet insurance is heavily dependent on the type of cover. For the Sphynx hairless cat cheap health insurance might cost £153 per year. For the Bengal it would be £152 per year according to one website.

I have provided some guidelines based on online research to give a feel for the expense. It is expensive.

And these policies don’t always cover the entire vet bill – read the fine print. It is strange that a 3-bed home cost less to insure as the house might be worth £1,000,000 in the UK while a French bulldog, as mentioned is worth 33 times less.

The problem arises with the cost of veterinary bills in the UK which have risen unreasonable and the simple fact that many purebred cats and dogs are inherently unhealth as they inherit genetic diseases due to inbreeding (selective breeding). In general, the risk of accidental damage to a house in the UK is low and you don’t need huge amounts of maintenance and which is what it takes to keep a French bulldog reasonably healthy.

P.S. The price of pets has risen quite dramatically recently with inflation and in America, for instance, the price of some purebred cats for sale at hobby breeders have risen due to market pressures. In other words, supply can’t keep pace with demand. This applies to the Maine Coon.

We know that there has been a step increase in pet ownership in the UK over Covid. Perhaps the corporate bodies who’ve bought up the independent veterinary clinics saw this and also believed that vets were undercharging and have subsequently increased prices. The UK government is investigating veterinary clinic prices. I think this is another area of exploitation of British citizens.

Historically the UK has been exploited by international businesses. They buy up companies and start milking the British public mercilessly. The government needs to do something about it. It is shocking that railways companies, water companies and airlines for instance are owned by big corporate enterprises overseas whose sole objective is to milk the British.

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