Attached are recent changes to Travelers NY homeowner and umbrella policies regarding liability exclusions for certain animals. It seems to me this is a loophole around the dog breed legislation passed in NY that prohibits Insurance companies from refusing to write homeowner or umbrella insurance for persons who own certain breeds of dogs. With these 2 amendments to the contract language, the company doesn't have to refuse to write the insurance as the exclusions will take care of isolating the company from any liability claims that result from certain dogs. Would love your opinion on these endorsements.

New York Subscriber

The statute states that no insurer shall refuse to issue or renew, cancel, or increase premium based solely upon harboring or owning any dog of a specific breed or mix of breeds. The umbrella exclusion is for damage/injury from a breed controlled by statute because of public safety concerns, or is wild, venomous, poisonous, or has a bite history etc. This is different than a generic dog breed exclusion – it's not specific to any breed, only those animals already restricted by the state because of safety concerns. This would be dogs falling into the definition of a dangerous dog.