The good news for pet parents is that many businesses are now including pets in their benefits package. Patricia Kitchen is a columnist at Newsday and can be reached via e-mail at pkitchen@newsday.com.

Could this be because 63% of American homes have pets while only 30% gave kids under 18-years-old? Yep. This is one statistic I include in my upcoming 2007 book, Blessing of the Animals. The above article on the topic is the second one to cross my desk this week. Patricia Kitchen released a more extensive article earlier with pet ownership statistics here.

Excerpts from the above article:
“Research from the Society for Human Resource Management http://www.shrm.org shows that 5 percent of the 379 human resources respondents said they offered pet health insurance as a benefit this year, up from 1 percent in 2001.”

“…Hence, we see the likes of Home Depot, Viacom, Google and Ford offering such an option. And Bethpage Federal Credit Union put pet health insurance on its benefits menu in January…”

Did you catch Guerrero on the Today Show September 6, 2006?

Here is an related audio clip regarding the burning question regarding Steve Irwin’s death: Has the media given up safety for ratings?

Concerns over the middle east spawn a multitude of articles. Here is a recent one on military pets and a new website specifically for military families with pets.

This is also a timely plea for veterinary assistance in Lebanon.