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Veterinary Pet Insurance, the nation’s largest pet insurer, saw its corporate accounts balloon from 15 to 1,600 in the past six years. About 15 percent of Veterinary Pet Insurance’s policies, or about 50,000, now come from its corporate accounts.

More and more employers are offering pet health insurance these days because they have realized that most households have at least one pet. It also doesn’t hurt that the insurance doesn’t cost them a dine since the employee pays the full cost of the coverage. For most companies, pet insurance is simply a way to help employees at no cost to the bottom line.

You can read the full article on MSNBC

Technorati Tags: Cats, Dogs, Pet Insurance, Pets

What would a dog say if it could talk? “Stranger”, “fight”, “walk”, “alone”, “ball” and “play”, according to scientists who have developed a computer programme to translate dog barks.

The special programme analysed more than 6,000 barks from 14 Hungarian sheepdogs in six different situations.

The software is designed to recognize different dog barks to identify things like “play”, “ball”, “strange”, etc. but so far is only accurate about 43% of the time. With more time and research they could possibly get this to a much higher success rate. I doubt this could get to the point where we are having 2-way conversations with a dog, but it could certainly have some very fun and interesting applications.

Daily Mail has the full story.

Technorati Tags: Pets, Dogs, Science

Kitty Wigs offers a variety of wigs for you feline friends proving that humans aren’t the only ones trying to cover up a bald spot! -^^-

These wigs are actually just cosmetic accessories for the fashion conscious kitty. With 4 colors to choose from your cat can have one to match every mood or fur coat. Don’t get bent PETA, a cat’s fur coat is all natural! Add some kitty bling and she’s good to go!

Technorati Tags: Kitty Wigs, Cat Wigs, Pet Wigs

In 2001, when it became apparent that animal cloning may become a commercial venture to help improve the quality of herds, FDA requested livestock producers and researchers to keep food from animal clones or their offspring out of the food supply. Since then, FDA has conducted an intensive evaluation that included examining the safety of food from these animals and the risk to animal health.

Based on a final risk assessment, a report written by FDA scientists and issued in January 2008, FDA has concluded that meat and milk from cow, pig, and goat clones and the offspring of any animal clones are as safe as food we eat every day.

A Seven year study has produced findings that meat and milk from cloned cows, pigs and goats was as good for us as non-cloned animals. This could mean we’ll be seeing more and more cloned food in our stores. Will they be required to label it? Could this be the first steps in doing away with having to use hormones and other chemicals? It’s an interesting development and one I’ll be watching closely. Read the details of the FDA Cloning Report yourself. What do you think?

Technorati Tags: FDA, Anmials, Cloning, Cloned Food

There have been studies on the healing benefits of music on humans and even studies on how music effects plans. Now researchers are testing the healing properties of music on our furry friends. This would fall in the “alternative medicine” category, but good music certainly can’t hurt, and if it helps, why not try it?

The healing power of music has long been established in people. Now a handful of harpists throughout the country are harnessing that power for animals.

Alianna Boone is one of those musicians.

“The structure of the harp is considered to be the most healing instruments next to human voice,” said Boone, an Oregonian who plays for ill family pets and produced a CD “Harp Music to Soothe the Savage Beast.”

Read the full story over at MSNBC

Technorati Tags: Pets, Pet Care, Pet Health