Labrador who ate an entire beehive wins pet insurance company’s award for oddest claim

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It would be difficult to argue with the pet-loving folks who voted Ellie, a year-old Labrador retriever from Santee, Calif., the winner of VPI Pet Insurance‘s Hambone Award for oddest insurance claim.

After all, she did eat an entire beehive -- a fact her owners, the Coe family, only discovered when she began vomiting bees by the hundreds.

Exterminators had sprayed a beehive in the Coes’ yard with pesticide, and Ellie apparently consumed the hive after the bees inside it were dead. Odd as it sounds, that seems to have worked to Ellie’s advantage, since she didn’t suffer any bee stings. Once the Coes discovered Ellie’s big problem, they rushed her to an emergency veterinarian, who gave her a dose of anti-nausea medication and observed her for a few hours. (‘Additionally, Poison Control indicated the pesticide did not pose a significant risk of toxicity,’ according to VPI.)

Ellie beat out 11 other animal accident victims -- all of whom survived their ordeals -- including a border collie who chased a mailman right through a closed window and a standard poodle who ate two plastic baby bottles and a (used) diaper.

This is the second year in a row that VPI has presented the Hambone Award. Last year, a bulldog named Lulu who swallowed 15 baby pacifiers, a bottle cap and part of a basketball, won the award.

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-- Lindsay Barnett