Petsecure's Randy Valpy on pet allowance in Canada

Frisky, a tabby with tumours, was Petsecure's top claim in March 2010, with a payout from the pet health insurer of over $3750. Lucy, a Dachshund with disc and spinal problems, would have cost her owners over $2500 that month but they too had pet health insurance. Petsecure is a core brand of SecuriCan General Insurance Company and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Western Financial Group. It's also Canada's largest and oldest pet insurance provider, having insured fury and four-legged friends since 1989. ILSTV spoke with Petsecure's President and CEO Randy Valpy to find out how big of a market pet insurance is. Randy Valpy: We know there are over 14 million cats and dogs in Canada and we know there's no way we'll ever get close to insuring all of those pets. We won't even be able to insure half of them. When you look at European markets where pet insurance has been around for decades, the UK has about a 23 percent penetration. Even that, I think, will be a stretch for Canada. I think eventually we might see about a 15 percent penetration. But those are your affectionate pet owners: the ones that refer to themselves as their cat or dog's mom or dad, that celebrate the pet's birthday. They're certainly more urban-based than rural. We realize that we're only ever going to be able to hit maybe two or four million potential policyholders but that's a far cry from where we are as an industry. We're at about 130000 -- 140000 now. The average pet insurance policy is somewhere in ...

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