Animal Bailee Coverage
What Is Animal Bailee Coverage?
Animal Bailee Coverage helps pay legal or claim costs if a client’s pet is hurt, gets sick, escapes, or passes away while in your care, custody, or control.
- Care: looking after their pet
- Custody: keeping their pet safe
- Control: making decisions about their pet’s care
Not included in standard business insurance, animal bailee coverage is designed for pet pros who temporarily take responsibility for other people’s pets. Without it, you could be on the hook for vet bills, search costs, or legal fees if something happens to a pet on your watch.
What It Means for You
- Protects pets you care for: Helps cover legal or medical costs to make things right if something goes wrong.
- Protects your reputation: Clients trust you to take their pets’ safety seriously and have the coverage to back it up.
- Fills a coverage gap for pet pros: The general liability coverage in a typical business policy won’t cover property in your care, custody, or control. Since animals are legally considered property (we know, it’s a head-tilter for us, too), general liability alone often won’t help if a pet is injured or lost during your care.
- Meets requirements: Many pet care contracts, permits, and platforms want proof of this coverage.
- Flexible limits: Choose aggregate limits that fit the size of your business (the bigger your business, the greater your risks and the higher your limits need to be).
When Do You Need Animal Bailee Coverage?
Here are a few real-world examples of when Animal Bailee could make a big difference:
- Dog walker: Ruby the Frenchie stumbles off a curb and needs stitches. Animal bailee helps with the vet bill.
- Boarder: You unknowingly take in a sick dog, and several dogs staying with you catch a severe virus overnight. Animal bailee could help you handle a lawsuit and medical care.
- Pet taxi: Barkley and Marley are hurt in the backseat of your van after a sudden stop. Animal bailee protects you and the pets in your care by paying legal and vet fees.
- Sitter: Houdini the cat slips out the door while you were busy corralling the client’s beagle puppies. Animal bailee could pay for search costs and more.
What Does Animal Bailee Cover vs General Liability?
Every PCI policy includes animal bailee (we call it Pet Protection Coverage) and general liability insurance. Here’s how these coverages work together to keep you safe.
| Animal Bailee | General Liability | |
|---|---|---|
|
What it protects
|
A client’s pet while in your care, custody, or control
|
People and their property you accidentally injure or damage (but are not legally in your care, custody, or control)
|
|
Typical triggers
|
Injury, illness, escape, or death of a client’s pet during your services
|
Injury to another person or damage to their home, building, or lawn (to cover personal property like furniture and decor, see broadened property damage coverage)
|
|
Common gap it fills
|
General liability doesn’t cover pets in your care, custody, and control, but animal bailee does.
|
Animal bailee doesn’t cover harm caused by pets to others or their property, but general liability does.
|
|
Limits |
Per-occurrence limit and aggregate limit with higher limits available
|
Per-occurrence and aggregate limits with sublimits for specific risks like animal liability
|
|
Notable extras
|
May include vet bills, advertising/reward, transport
|
Personal and advertising injury, damage to premises rented to you, animal liability
|
What it protects
Animal Bailee: A client’s pet while in your care, custody, or control
General Liability: People and their property you accidentally injure or damage (but are not legally in your care, custody, or control)
Typical triggers
Animal Bailee: Injury, illness, escape, or death of a client’s pet during your services
General Liability: Injury to another person or damage to their home, building, or lawn (to cover personal property like furniture and decor, see broadened property damage coverage)
Common gap it fills
Animal Bailee: General liability doesn’t cover pets in your care, custody, and control, but animal bailee does.
General Liability: Animal bailee doesn’t cover harm caused by pets to others or their property, but general liability does.
Limits
Animal Bailee: Per-occurrence limit and aggregate limit with higher limits available
General Liability: Per-occurrence and aggregate limits with sublimits for specific risks like animal liability
Notable extras
Animal Bailee: May include vet bills, advertising/reward, transport
General Liability: Personal and advertising injury, damage to premises rented to you, animal liability
Pro tip: Animal bailee helps if something happens to the pet. General liability often helps if something happens because of the pet.
Details to Know About Animal Bailee Coverage
Animal Bailee Coverage can save you from major out-of-pocket costs, but there are a few details worth understanding that can trip up pet pros:
- Your own pets aren’t covered. This policy protects client-owned animals only, not pets you own.
- Pets have to be in your care, custody, or control to qualify. If you hand a dog’s leash over to a friend who’s not your family member, employee, or contractor, and the dog bolts, that may fall outside your coverage.
- It can cover expenses if a pet passes away. If an accident or illness while a pet was in your care leads to the pet’s death, animal bailee can help cover the costs of vet bills, lawsuits, and more.
- You choose your limits. PCI includes $2,500 of coverage per incident and $5,000 for the year with every policy. But, you can raise your limits up to $15,000 per incident and $30,000 per year to fit your risks.
- Proof of animal bailee coverage might be required. Coverage for animals in your care, custody, or control is one of the most common contract requirements for pet pros.
Big Takeaway
Animal bailee insurance helps protect you, your clients, and the pets you love from accidents during your care. It fills the gap that generic business insurance leaves open, helping you handle pet emergencies with compassion and confidence.
Keep Sniffing Around
- Care, Custody, and Control (CCC)
- General Liability
- Per-Occurrence Limit
- Aggregate Limit
- Certificate of Insurance (COI)
- Waiver of Subrogation
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