Trends, practice and perspectives in pet insurance

Nowadays international and an increasing number of national regulations that govern pet ownership in the world encourage owners to take responsibility for the welfare of their animals. One way to ensure this is through the institution of pet insurance. Pet insurance is an emerging growing global market which has reached size of 4.5 million dollars until 2020, as a result of the increase in number of pets, gradual change in the legal position of animals, strengthening relations between humans and pets and increasing investments in the quality of pet lives and health. There is still rather limited literature available dealing with pet insurance. Thus, in this paper the author analyzes the development trends, examples of best business models and perspectives of this market in Region, as well as in the world. Following the increase in pet number, huge development in grooming and food production industries on domestic market, inovations in veterinary medicine, guided by best international business models, the author draws attention to the prospects of reintroducing this insurance in Serbia. Using a comparative method, leaving aside the third-party liability insurance, the aim of author, is to show that pet insurance can prevent or ease many price discussions with its huge importance for the animals, their owners, veterinary institutions, insurance companies as well as for the whole society.