Care, Custody, and Control
What Is Care, Custody, and Control?
A client’s pet is in your Care, Custody, and Control (CCC) when you’re paid to put it under your watch and responsibility. Here’s a handy cheat sheet:
- Care: looking after their pet
- Custody: keeping their pet safe
- Control: making decisions about their pet’s care
To cover animals in their care, custody, and control, pet pros need Animal Bailee Coverage (we call it Pet Protection Coverage at PCI). This can help cover vet bills and related costs if a pet is injured, lost, or even dies while in your care.
Here’s what many pet pros don’t know: generic business insurance rarely protects pets in your care, custody, and control.
Pets are considered property in most states (we know, ick, but it’s the law.) When you volunteer to watch over someone else’s stuff, general liability insurance usually stops covering damage to that property. That means you need Animal Bailee Insurance to protect pets when clients leave them in your care for a walk, groom, training, boarding, or other service.
Here are the highlights pet pros need to know:
- General liability alone isn’t enough: Look for a pet care insurance policy with Animal Bailee Insurance (like Pet Protection Coverage) to fill this important gap.
- The right limits matter: Check per-animal or per-occurrence limits to make sure they match real vet costs in your area.
- Check the fine print: When comparing Animal Bailee options, look for sublimits like lost pet advertising, reward money, and theft or disappearance. Deductibles may also apply.
- Know the exclusions: No insurance policy covers everything. Disease, pre-existing conditions, unlocked vehicle theft, and professional guarantees may be excluded.
What Does “Care, Custody, and Control” Include?
What’s covered varies for different animal bailee policies, but this coverage is designed to help with:
- Vet bills if a pet is injured while with you, up to your limits
- Death benefit if a covered incident leads to the loss of the pet
- Lawsuits and claims related to pet injury or loss (including defense costs and other court fees up to your policy limits)
- Lost pet retrieval costs (like advertising a reward to find a lost pet)
Pro Tip: Your policy may also have a separate coverage, like PCI’s Veterinarian Reimbursement, that provides even more help with emergency pet medical costs.
Paws-on-the-Ground Examples
- Your pet taxi gets into a car accident that injures the dogs you’re transporting
- Sammy’s leash breaks while you’re on a walk, and he runs into traffic
- Spooky slips around you and out of the door when you arrive for a pet sitting visit
What’s Excluded From Care, Custody, and Control?
It’s just as important to know what isn’t covered as what is when it comes to pets you’re responsible for. These are some common exclusions:
- Communicable diseases or parasites, especially without proof the pet had required vaccines
- Pre-existing injuries or conditions
- Intentional harm, neglect, or failure to follow care standards
- Theft from an unlocked vehicle or mysterious disappearance
- Damage to client belongings inside their home (that’s Broadened Property Damage Coverage)
- Damage to a vehicle itself (not pets inside) due to an auto accident (that’s Commercial Auto Coverage)
- When your client’s pet injures a person or a pet not in your care (that’s general liability)
Pro Tip: Coverage depends on how the incident happened and what your policy allows. This is why reading exclusions is just as important as checking limits.
Big Takeaway
Clients often assume you’re insured for anything that might go wrong with their pet. Care, custody, and control coverage like animal bailee helps protect the pets you love, the trust you’ve built with clients, and the business you depend on.
Keep Sniffing Around
- Animal Bailee Coverage (Pet Protection)
- General Liability Insurance
- Broadened Property Damage Coverage
- Commercial Auto Coverage
- Sublimit
- Deductible
- Per Occurrence Limit
- Exclusion
Kyle Jude | Program Manager
Kyle Jude is the Program Manager for PCI, where he helps design and maintain liability coverage specifically for pet professionals. With 10+ years of insurance industry experience, he works closely with carriers, underwriters, and compliance teams to ensure PCI coverage stays accurate, responsive, and relevant to real-world risks. At home, he puts that same expertise to use wrangling his four beloved dogs
Kyle Jude is the Program Manager for PCI, where he helps design and maintain liability coverage specifically for pet professionals. With 10+ years of insurance industry experience, he works closely with carriers, underwriters, and compliance teams to ensure PCI coverage stays accurate, responsive, and relevant to real-world risks. At home, he puts that same expertise to use wrangling his four beloved dogs