Even Heroes Need Help Sometimes: Trupanion Insures Its Place As Champion Of Service Dogs In The 2012 American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards

Trupanion increases its investment and commitment in support of American Humane Association activities and the hero dogs living throughout the country.

WASHINGTON, July 5, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Trupanion, a trusted pet brand and proven industry leader in pet insurance devoted to helping pet owners enjoy the happiest, healthiest and longest lives possible with their remarkable pets, today announced their increased commitment to the nation's most heroic animals by becoming a sponsor of the Service Dog category in this year's American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards™.  Through an existing Trupanion-AHA partnership, Trupanion customers already know the value of the American Humane Association's Second Chance Fund™ which helps animals that are the victims of abuse or neglect by providing financial assistance to agencies that rescue, care for, and re-home abused or neglected animals.

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The Hero Dog Awards were created by the American Humane Association to celebrate the devoted relationship between dogs and people. Presented by the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation and broadcast nationwide on Hallmark Channel, the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards are produced by Emmy® award winning MRB Productions.  The annual national competition searches out and recognizes America's Hero Dogs – often ordinary dogs who do extraordinary things, whether it's saving lives on the battlefield, lending sight or hearing to a human companion, or simply the tail-wagging welcome a pet owner relishes at the end of a hard day. 

"The Hero Dog Awards are a powerful way to tell the story of the human-animal bond," said Dr. Robin Ganzert, President and CEO of the 135-year-old American Humane Association. "We salute corporate champions like Trupanion who support the major role that animals play in our lives each and every day."

"The Service Dogs category brings important attention to the dogs which make such a difference in the lives of people living with diabetes, the aftermath of a stroke, traumatic brain injuries and many other challenges," said Darryl Rawlings, chief executive officer at Trupanion. "There is a special bond between service dogs and their owners because they serve such an important purpose, providing alerts when their owners have a seizure, pulling wheelchairs up steep inclines, and when needed, retrieving their owner's cell phones and medication. Trupanion is pleased and proud to be named a distinguished sponsor of the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards' Service Dogs category."

Dogs may be nominated in eight categories for the Hero Dog Awards: Law Enforcement & Arson Dogs, Service Dogs, Therapy Dogs, Military Dogs, Guide Dogs, Search and Rescue Dogs, Hearing Dogs, and Emerging Hero Dogs (the category for "ordinary" dogs).  Finalists in each of the eight categories will be selected by the public from the pool of contestants, and flown to Hollywood with two of their human friends to the American Humane Association Hero Dog Awards gala at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California on October 6, 2012.  There they will walk the red carpet, attend the show which will be broadcast on Hallmark Channel on November 2, and will be recognized in a video tribute at the black-tie gala where the top winning American Hero Dog will be announced. With more than one million votes and counting so far, the public is encouraged to visit www.herodogawards.org to vote for their favorite dog.

"As pet owners and pet lovers ourselves, we at Trupanion understand this life-long dedication. Service dogs are among the many four-legged family members we insure, and we devote our time and energy to safeguarding the human-pet bond and helping both human and pet lead the longest, happiest, and healthiest life possible," Rawlings said.

About Lois Pope and the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation
Lois Pope is one of America's leading philanthropists and humanitarians.  Through her various charitable mechanisms, including the Lois Pope LIFE Foundation, Inc., she is devoted to saving lives, helping people help themselves, improving the quality of life for families in need and encouraging young Americans to become leaders by helping others.  Her foundations also provide awards for medical research, college scholarships, humanitarian relief, the performing arts, and animal welfare.  Among the many organizations that benefit from her leadership are the American Humane Association; the Disabled Veterans' LIFE Memorial Foundation, which she founded to spearhead the development of the American Veterans Disabled for Life Memorial, the nation's first and only permanent public tribute to the three million living disabled American veterans and the thousands who have died; the University of Miami, where her major contribution endowed the Lois Pope LIFE Center, the top catastrophic neurological research facility in the world and home to the renowned Miami Project to Cure Paralysis;  Leaders in Furthering Education, which has provided a summer camp experience for more than 15,000 disadvantaged and special needs children, as well as college scholarship support to dozens of disadvantaged high school students who aspire to careers as physicians/researchers; Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's Red Cross, for new ambulances; and the Peggy Adams Animal Rescue League for a new mobile pet adoption unit.

About Hallmark Channel
Hallmark Channel, owned and operated by Crown Media Holdings, Inc., is a 24-hour basic cable network that provides a diverse slate of high-quality entertainment programming available in high definition (HD) and standard definition (SD) to a national audience of 87 million subscribers. The top tier program service is distributed through approximately 5,492 cable systems and communities as well as direct-to-home satellite services across the country. Hallmark Channel is the nation's leading network in quality family programming with an ambitious slate of original TV movies, lifestyle and general entertainment content, and is the home of "The Martha Stewart Show", which anchors the channel's daytime original programming block. Hallmark Channel's sibling network is Hallmark Movie Channel, also available in HD and SD, which focuses on the family-friendly movies with a mix of classic theatrical films, presentations from the acclaimed Hallmark Hall of Fame library, original Hallmark Channel movies and special events. For more information, please visit www.HallmarkChannelPress.com.

About MRB Productions
MRB's feature department is in post-production on the psychological thriller Emanuel and the Truth About Fishes, starring Jessica Biel and Alfred Molina, while MRB's political activism biopic, starring Jason Biggs, is currently in theaters. Emmy award winning MRB recently won a Webby for The Confession, starring Kiefer Sutherland. In Television, MRB has a decade of experience producing the pre-taped segments and VIP program for ESPN's ESPY Awards, in addition to producing the inaugural Hero Dog Awards for the Hallmark Channel. Additional TV projects include two seasons of the mockumentary comedy show Free Radio on VH1 and Comedy Central. In the video game space, MRB partners with Ubisoft on the Just Dance Kids series. MRB's commercial repertoire includes a longstanding relationship with Mattel and collaborations with Periera & O'Dell, Saatchi & Saatchi, and Publicis, for clients such as Samsung, NHL, Smirnoff, Wal-Mart, and University of Phoenix.

About Trupanion
Trupanion is a trusted pet brand and proven industry leader in pet insurance, offering cat and dog insurance in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico, providing financial peace of mind for pet owners.  We are a company made up of pet owners and pet lovers devoted to two principles—continually upgrading our policy benefits to include the best and latest proven veterinary medical advancements, and devising new ways to make it simple and easy for our customers to enroll and make claims for their pets. 

Trupanion offers an easy and simple, customizable pet insurance policy and the best value in the industry with 90% coverage for diagnostic tests, surgeries, medications, hospital stays, and alternative therapies for the treatment of accidents or illnesses. Hereditary and congenital conditions are included and there are no payout limits per incident, per year, or over the lifetime of the pet.

Trupanion is self-underwritten by the American Pet Insurance Company, which has earned a Financial Stability Rating of A, Exceptional, from Demotech, Inc.  Trupanion is a proud sponsor of the American Humane Association's national Hero Dog Awards, and is a founding member of the North American Pet Health Insurance Association (NAPHIA), demonstrating our commitment to high standards and transparency in all of our actions and products. For more information call 800-569-7913 or visit Trupanion pet insurance. You can also follow Trupanion on Twitter or Facebook.

About American Humane Association
Since 1877 American Humane Association has been at the forefront of virtually every major advance in protecting children, pets and farm animals from cruelty, abuse and neglect. Today we're also leading the way in understanding the human-animal bond and its role in therapy, medicine and society. American Humane Association reaches millions of people every day through groundbreaking research, education, training and services that span a wide network of organizations, agencies and businesses. You can help make a difference, too. Visit American Humane Association at www.americanhumane.org today.

SOURCE American Humane Association