ABC 7 News in Denver recently ran a story about Farmers Insurance Totaling a dog.  Here is the full story.

Here is the shortened version.  Marcia Pinkstaff owns a 9 year old lab mix named Sasha.  Sasha was hit by a car.  The driver of the car was at fault and was insured by Farmers Insurance.

The insurance adjuster told Pinkstaff that she could take Sasha to the vet once and maybe twice but that if Sasha needed more care they would total the dog.  In other words, no more vet visits would be paid for.  Instead, Pinkstaff would be paid the value of finding a used 9 year old lab mix.

Is it legal?  In Utah, it probably is.  Utah law is that dogs are simply property.  The full value of a dog is its replacement cost.  The law does take into account things like breed and training.  A seeing eye dog is more valuable than the neighborhood mutt.

Because dogs are property, they can be totalled just like a car.