The ShelterCare insurance program, now in its fourth year, continues to make a remarkable impact on the animal welfare world. Approximately 6,000 shelters and rescue groups throughout North America have used the program since it was launched in January 2002. Over 900,000 dogs and cats have been enrolled and over $4-million in claims have been paid within the 30-day gift period alone. Indeed, we eagerly anticipate the one-millionth enrollment, expected in July of this year.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Petfinder.com for its sponsorship of the ShelterCare program to date, specifically their generosity in pre-paying the first 30 days of coverage for pets adopted from Petfinder member organizations.

This letter is to announce that, as of May 3, 2006, Petfinder will no longer be funding the cost of the first 30 days of ShelterCare coverage. Accordingly, as the ShelterCare Gift has been provided to you solely through Petfinder’s commercial relationship with Pethealth, we are letting you know that the ShelterCare program as is currently offered will change.

Pethealth, however, will continue to work with animal welfare organizations and will do its best to ensure that the ShelterCare programs (both the existing ShelterCare Gift Program and the new ShelterCare Intro Program!) continue to be offered as widely as possible.

In light of the above, please note these important changes to the ShelterCare program: effective May 3rd:

1. The ShelterCare Program is now potentially available to ALL animal welfare organizations.

Use of the current ShelterCare program (with its coverage for 11 named perils) will no longer be restricted to Petfinder members but will be made available to potentially all non-profit animal welfare organizations.

2. However, only those animal welfare organizations using PetPoint or EPE may continue to use the current ShelterCare program including the 30 days of prepaid Gift coverage.

3. Shelters that wish to continue with the current ShelterCare Gift Program but are not currently using PetPoint or EPE may begin using either at any time.

EPE is the web-based registration utility used by organizations planning to transition to full PetPoint usage.

PetPoint is fast becoming the most widely used shelter management software within the animal welfare community, with approximately one animal welfare organization in North America licensing its use each day. PetPoint is not only the most intuitive program of its kind but, as a .NET ASP solution, it also eliminates the need for an organization to incur significant IT-related costs. Best of all, it’s FREE to those organizations using the 24PetWatch microchip program. For more information, please go to www.petpoint.com or call Brad Grucelski or Tammy Bristol at 1-866-630-7387.

4. Animal welfare organizations NOT wishing to use PetPoint or EPE may provide adopters with information about our new alternative program – the ShelterCare Intro Program.

This program, modeled after the in-store program we designed for our friends at PETCO, provides new pet adopters the ability to purchase insurance coverage that is both broader (unlimited accidents and all illnesses) and more immediate (coverage starts at 12.01 a.m. the day after enrolment) than is currently provided under the current ShelterCare Gift program.While there is no 30 days of prepaid (gift) coverage with ShelterCare Intro, the first month of coverage for your adopters is only $1! (See new marketing materials for more details.)

However, please note that it is mandatory that adopters wishing to take advantage of ShelterCare Intro contact us directly by phone at our toll-free number 1-866-375-7387 or visit us online at www.sheltercare.com as coverage cannot begin until we have received their payment information. We will not be asking shelters to capture payment information at the time of adoption and therefore it is absolutely necessary that your adopters contact us directly.

We understand that many of you will have questions regarding these changes, whether it is with respect to how to move your shelter on to the PetPoint program or with respect to ShelterCare Intro. If you do, please feel free to contact any of the ShelterCare team listed below.

Michael Petersdorf, Director - 612.790.1508
Dion Comba – 866.375.7387 ext.264
Brad Grucelski - 866.375.7387 ext.284
Tammy Bristol - 866.375.7387 ext.416

Kind regards,

Mike Petersdorf
Director
Pethealth Services Inc.

P.S. For those of you who have answered our previous email by updating your contact information, we thank you! If you have yet to do so, please click here and complete our quick contact details form.