'Tis the Season to Be Careful!

LONDON, December 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

For most of us, Christmas is the season of festive cheer. But for pets, it is the most hazardous time of the year.

Be it slipping on the ice, standing on sharp pine needles or eating something they shouldn't, analysis of over 650,000 claims by John Lewis Pet Insurance has found Christmas can be a treacherous time for cats and dogs.

For three years in a row, December has seen more claims than any other month in the same year - and insurers believe a major cause might be families leaving Christmas food, such as Christmas pudding, within the reach of their pet.

While accidents, injuries, wounds and fractures featured top of the list of injuries last December - as they do most months - "poisoning"* significantly increased during the festive period.

Incidents of poisoning in December 2011 were 91% higher than the monthly average for that year. In 2010, the number of poisonings in December was 90% higher than the monthly average and 75% higher in December 2009 than the monthly average for that year.

Now John Lewis Pet Insurance is warning pet owners to keep human food out of harm's way.

Keith Bibby, head of marketing at John Lewis Insurance, said: "Domestic animals have very different dietary requirements from humans. A tasty treat, such as Christmas pudding or chocolate coins, could harm a cat or dog. Pet owners need to ensure these things are kept away from animals this Christmas.

"Pet owners should also pay close attention to their pets around Christmas decorations and presents as even the smallest of items can lead to injury whether they chose to ingest or step on them.

"Pet insurance ensures peace of mind that, if in the unfortunate event your pet falls unwell, or suffers from a nasty accident, you do not have to worry about costly vet bills and can instead focus on the care and attention your pet needs for a speedy recovery."

* "Poisoning" is an insurance industry term referring to any damaging ingestion of food stuffs.

For further information, please contact MRM:

• Michael Taggart on +44(0)20-3326-9913 / +44(0)7780-008-939 / [email protected]
• Jenny Crossland on +44(0)20-3326-9911 / +44(0)7766-567-297 / [email protected]

John Lewis Pet Insurance analysed 656,827 claims from January 2009 - December 2011.

The top 10 injuries in December 2011:

1. Wound
2. Accidents and injuries
3. Fractures
4. Poisoning
5. Foreign body - gastric
6. Cut pad
7. Road traffic accident
8. Foreign body
9. Dog fight
10. Bite wound

The top 10 injuries in November 2011:

1. Cut pad
2. Wound
3. Accident and injuries
4. Fractures
5. Road traffic accident
6. Foreign body
7. Foreign bogy - gastric
8. Poisoning
9. Bite wound
10. Grass seed

The John Lewis Partnership - The John Lewis Partnership operates 37 John Lewis shops across the UK (29 department stores and eight John Lewis at home), johnlewis.com and 280 Waitrose supermarkets. The business has annual gross sales of over £8.7bn. It is the UK's largest example of worker co-ownership where all 81,000 staff are Partners in the business.

John Lewis - John Lewis, 'Britain's favourite electrical retailer 2012'* and 'Best Multichannel Retailer 2012'** typically stocks more than 350,000 separate lines in its department stores. The website stocks over 200,000 products focused on the best of fashion, beauty, home and giftware and electrical items including online exclusives. johnlewis.com is consistently ranked one of the top online shopping destinations in the UK. (http://www.johnlewis.com). John Lewis Insurance offers a range of comprehensive insurance products - home, car, wedding and event, travel and pet insurance and life cover - delivering the usual values of expertise, trust and customer service expected from the John Lewis brand. (http://www.johnlewis.com/insurance)

* Verdict Consumer Satisfaction Index, April 2012
** PayPal Retail Awards 2012

You can follow John Lewis on the following social media channels:

http://www.johnlewis.com/twitter
http://www.johnlewis.com/facebook
http://www.johnlewis.com/youtube

Contact Details:

Lauren Baldwin, [email protected], +44(0)20-7592-6677

SOURCE John Lewis Insurance