We looked into this last year with a court employee using a therapy dog in the scope of her employment. We do not have a policy. The questions here are some of the ones considered by the court, too. Eventually, the idea stalled out, but it is not a done deal. This is what the insurance underwriter had to share for insurance purposes, which may be helpful for you. Our liability coverage will extend to defend the county and this individual as an employee and using the dog in the course and scope of her employment. If she would be sued personally as the owner of the dog, we would not defend her in that capacity. She would have to look to her homeowner insurance coverage to do that. Also, there would not be any coverage for the dog itself. If injured, it would be her responsibility to pay for vet care. It would be cleaner for the county to own the therapy dog and assign her to be the handler. We could then add the dog for its own injuries too. Matthew S. Wilson, CLRP Director of Human Resources, Erie County 2900 Columbus Ave., Sandusky, OH 44870 PH (419) 627-7677 F (419) 627-7599 Erie County Department of Human Resources * Personnel Administration * Risk Management * Workers' Compensation * Benefits Administration * Wellness * CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: The information transmitted (including any attachments) is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain confidential and/or Protected Health Information (PHI) which is personal information about an individual’s health care. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, distribution or transmission of the PHI without the individual’s consent is strictly prohibited and may subject you to penalties under federal and state law. If you are not the intended recipient, please immediately contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy this message and all attachments. From: CORSA-broadcast [mailto:corsa-broadcast-bounces@corsa.org] On Behalf Of Spencer, Susan Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2022 4:53 PM To: 'CORSA Broadcast Email' <corsa-broadcast@corsa.org> Subject: [POTENTIAL SPAM] [CORSA-broadcast] Therapy Dog Policy Warren County is looking into the possibility of purchasing a therapy dog for our Children Services Agency. We are considering using an employee as the dog handler. Does anyone have a therapy dog and do you have a policy you could share with us? Questions: How do you handle vet bills, training , food and licensures? Do you have structured arrangements for use of the dog? How do you compensate the handler if it is an employee or do you use and outside source as a handler for the dog? Thank you for any information you can share. Sue Spencer HR Manager Warren County Phone: 513-695-1747