Travel Insurance - volunteer work with animals

riktus

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I are heading out to Ecuador in April for a few months, with most of our time in a couple of volunteer projects with animal rescue centres. Have spent a couple of days ploughing through various insurance sites (have the joy of speccing in pre-exisiting medical conditions as well) but as yet have not found any policies which seem explicitly to cover work with animals.

Has anyone done something similar and found a policy with explicit cover for working with animals? Or anyone got any good ideas for who to look at first? Ill have a bit more of a rummage over the weekend and phone a few promising looking providers at the start of the week, see if they can shed any light.

Thanks all!

RibAd

Hi riktus, welcome to the Board!

you can try the British Insurance Broker's Association (BIBA) as you may need a specialist policy. They have a database of insurance companies including brokers.
have a look here:

http://www.biba.org.uk/consumer/findbroker.asp

Leigh-Anne_60

In what capacity will you be working with animals, are you a qualified vet? And what kind of animals will be involved, domestic or wild? Also can you be more specific about your trip duration?

riktus

Thanks for the responses guys - afraid I stopped paying attention to the board after a couple of days

The animals are both domestic and wild as far as I know, with the intention for suitable candidates to be re-released. Contact is minimal, but we will be feeding/watering and cleaning enclosures - not qualified vets, just doing some manual work. We are out there for just under 3 months.

Have spoken to Endsleigh as they apparantly cover some of the 'gap' organisations, however have had different people there say different things about whether this would be covered or not - currently awaiting a definitive answer, hopefully in writing!

Will post the final outcome there - but any other suggestions of places to look at would be appreciated in case we do need to change at the last minute. Thanks for the BIBA pointer, they will be the first (next) port of call!

xxlaurissaxx

hi, just wondering how you got on as im in the same boat. I'll be working with lions, cheetahs etc and cant find cover anywhere.

Anyone else know of any insurance that will cover this?

Im totally stuck xx

peter000

The Trailfinders cover is supposed to be very comprehensive, so you could check with them.

xxlaurissaxx

Thanks will call them up. xx

rascal06

I'm off to do volunteer work in a monkey sanctuary in south africa for a month in march, i found the datils for travel insurance that covers this kind of work on a website called POD, you should be able to find the insuraners contact details on there.
Make a point of saying you looked at the POD website, otherwise they might not give you cover.
Good luck:)