Invest in protection: Expensive medical care for the animals can be a burden for families, leading to the need of pet insurance. Wang Zhenghua / Shanghai Star

New pet favorites for the Chinese

Furry friends

Prior to the release of the two new products, insurance schemes offered by small Chinese insurers proved unpopular, while large foreign companies, like Allianz, have yet to enter the market.

"Because of the poor state of pet identification technology and the incompleteness of the credit system, pet insurance has come late to China and the products on the market were predominantly third-party liability insurances which offer no coverage for pets," says Lu Zhihua, a division general manager at PICC's Beijing branch.

Shi Qiuqiong, an account executive at Ping An's Shanghai branch, says that the terms requiring owners to license their dogs was another important reason that made the schemes unpopular.

"In Shanghai alone, at least 60 percent of dogs in homes are unlicensed," she says.

As a result, owners showed little interest in these insurance products, despite them being promoted at pet shops or veterinary hospitals.

"They seldom sell," says He Zhiying, a sales manager at Shanghai Shenpu Pet Hospital, talking about a product developed by a small insurer and promoted at the hospital.

But people have shown great interests in the two new products. Ping An's Shi says that by mid-September, the company had sold seven schemes.

However, there are people who say buying insurance for their pets is unnecessary.

Ding Yaqiong, 27, who raises a number of cats and dogs in Shanghai, says: "My pets are not any rare species so there's no need to buy insurance in case they are stolen."

Also, the lifespan of an animal is usually about 10 years, much shorter than that of a human.

"I am prepared for the fact that they are more fragile than the human beings," she says.