Jackie, a Manchester terrier mix who ingested perfume, is vying with a tape-eating cat and other reckless animals in the latest contest for the most unusual pet insurance claim of the year.
“Jackie’s bizarre break-in gave her a huge bellyache after she figured out how to open the family’s junk drawer and ate all of its contents, including a medicine bottle, a bottle of fragrance and a pair of sunglasses,” Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co. said in statement Wednesday. The Indiana dog “needed X-rays and laxatives, but eventually was able to pass all the items.”
Nationwide is seeking to highlight the risks to pets as the company works to expand coverage of domestic animals. The Hambone award, named for a dog that ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while stuck in a refrigerator, has been given to the most bizarre claim every year since 2009.
The winner will be decided by a public vote through Sept. 30, and the animal hospital that treated the first-place contestant will get a $10,000 award, Columbus, Ohio-based Nationwide said. Previous winners include a Labrador retriever that ate a beehive along with thousands of its inhabitants.
Among this year’s nominees are a boxer that swallowed a barbecue skewer; a pug that consumed magnets that pinched its intestinal tract together; and Charm, a silver-shaded Persian cat from Virginia who ate more than three feet of packaging tape.
Policyholder-owned Nationwide insures about 550,000 pets and reviewed more than 1.3 million claims over the past year before selecting the 12 Hambone nominees for 2015.
“These stories exemplify the importance of taking the necessary precautions and seeking veterinary treatment when an animal shows signs of distress,” Carol McConnell, chief veterinary medical officer for Nationwide, said in the statement. “These pets all made remarkable recoveries because of their quick-thinking pet parents and proper treatment by skilled veterinarians.”
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