Statutory Report to Legislature Outlines Top Dog-Related Home Insurance Claims by Massachusetts Insurers

Data comes from a report required under the Act to Protect Animal Welfare and Safety in Cities & Towns

Under Section 32 of Chapter 219 of the Acts of 2018, licensed admitted homeowner insurance companies are required to provide annual reports to the Division of Insurance during the calendar years of 2020, 2021, and 2022 of specified information concerning the nature of dog claims made during the preceding calendar year.

In total, the Division notes that its information is based on the 428 total claims with injuries caused by dogs received by seventy-seven of the Massachusetts home insurance companies in 2020.

In order to consolidate the data into a more digestible format, the Division of Insurance requested that carriers submit their information to the Division first so that it could compile and forward the report to the appropriate persons in the Massachusetts Legislature. The Division then highlighted certain notable items from the reported information. All of the tables below are reprinted from the Division’s report to the Legislature.

Which ten breeds of dogs were associated with the most submitted claims?

What is the gender of the dog associated with the claim?

Has the dog associated with the claim gone through obedience training?

Was the dog associated with the claim ever declared dangerous in its own municipality?

If there was a claimed injury to a person, what was the person’s age?

Was the dog associated with the claim leashed at the time of injury?

Was the dog associated with the claim provoked before the injury occurred?

Did the claim injury occur on the owner’s property or elsewhere?

Was the injured person committing a crime upon person/property of the dog owner?

For those interested in the official report

A copy of the official report, from which we obtained the above tables can be accessed below.