Nationwide’s Hambone Award: The most unusual pet insurance claims

Nationwide shared the most unusual pet insurance claims of the year in this year’s edition of the Hambone Award.

The largest retail bank in the UK has announced the finalists for this year’s Hambone Award, a unique award that celebrates the year’s most unusual pet insurance claims. 

Nationwide’s annual Hambone Award reveals the most unusual pet insurance claims

Nationwide’s Hambone Award is presented annually by the Veterinary Pet Insurance Company subsidiary of Nationwide Insurance to the family of the pet that wins a public vote determining whose injuries were caused by the most unusual circumstances.

The award is named in honour of a dog who ate an entire holiday ham while stuck in a refrigerator, “The dog was eventually found, with a licked-clean ham bone and a mild case of hypothermia” as said on the awards website page.

Nationwide’s 2024 Hambone Award finalists

This year’s finalists include Archie, a New Jersey dog who injured his paws when he broke through a vintage plate glass door while trying to alert his family of the mall carrier’s arrival, and Bear, a Pennsylvania corgi who bit into a bottle of nail adhesive and effectively glued his mouth shut.

It’s not all dogs though, as is the case with Joe and his playful parrot Clover, another of the finalists this year. One day Joe saw Clover had gotten her claws in a twist, with Joe saying “I don’t know how she was able to do that, but somehow her feet got stuck together because her two toenails had hooked.”

Another impressive contestant for this year’s Hambone Award is Lambeau, a North Carolina dog who ate more than 250 jigsaw puzzle pieces. 

Previous winners of the honourable Hambone Award include 2022’s winner, Chopper, a Boxer dog who enthusiastically greeted a visitor by hurling himself through a window, and 2013’s winner Winnie, a mix-breed dog, who ate almost an entire kilogram of frozen onion rings.

The Hambone Award

Fortunately, all of the pets nominated for the award have made full and healthy recoveries and “their owners received insurance reimbursement for eligible expenses,” as stated on the website.

Each year, members of the public can go to the insurance site to vote for their favourite of the finalists, with this year’s votes closing on August 22.

“Each story we highlight is meant to exemplify the strength of our pets and their pet parents, and to spotlight the amazing skills of their trusted veterinarians”, the national insurance company explains, adding “It’s also a way to highlight all the things that can happen—and have happened—and the importance of being prepared.”