Pets, The Guinness book of Records and Serious illness

One of my favourite Christmas presents I received this year was the Guinness book of records 2012.  It's   full of bizarre and incredible facts, most of which you will never use, but all worth knowing anyway!  However whilst flicking through the book the other day, nestled away on the top page 149 was this fact:-

"In it's lifetime, the average dog will cost it's owners £6746 and the average cat £4950"

So, why did this fact catch my eye....and why are these figures so important?

A recent survey by Aegas Protect confirmed that based on a survey of 3000 individuals, 12% of Adults in the UK have pet insurance when compared to 9% who had a critical illness policy.

We all know that people love their pets, however their seems to be a lack of perspective for the people who have been survey which tends to illustrate why critical illness is less popular than pet insurance.  Firstly, let's consider both the financial and emotional impact on you and your family if you suffered from a critical illness (for instance a serious form of Cancer).  

You may be off work for a prolonged period of time while you recover and still have a monthly mortgage payment to cover.  You may not be able to work again, or you might want to pay debts off if you do suffer from any form of critical illness...you can see how these costs could quickly build up in the event of your suffering from one of these illnesses.  However the right level of cover is always personal and based on your thoughts and feeling in this area.  It's always worth speaking to a financial planning professional about the best route forward.

However, regardless of your circumstances....it's likely that the level of cover provided in the event of your suffering from a really serious illness is more than the total costs of looking after a pet.  I have critical illness cover with a sufficient amount to pay my mortgage off and then a little more to provide an additional level of financial security in the event of a critical illness.  My thought process is that the only thing I want to worry about if I ever suffered from a critical illness is recovering from said illness.....the last thing I want to concern myself with is money.

Therefore the financial impact of the ill health of a pet is far less than the financial impact of my ill health....Also, apart from the odd exemption (like the cute dog from the Oscar winning film, The Artist) there aren't many pets who can go out and earn a crust on your behalf.  This is why I believe Critical Illness cover is more important than pet insurance....but as ever, I'm open to other opinions.  What do you think?