Pets and mobile devices don't mix

American pets have bitten, chewed and otherwise damaged at least 8 million electronic devices, causing $3 billion in repair and replacement costs, a study says. Research by protection plan provider SquareTrade found one-third of the damaged devices were smartphones. "After seeing so many claims come in that involved pets, we decided to look into the data and see just how big a problem this was. And the results were pretty astounding," Ty Shay, SquareTrade chief marketing officer, said. "Using an $800 smartphone as a chew toy is a pricey slip-up, not to mention it's the device most of us can't live without." Three out of four devices damaged by pets were not covered by insurance or a protection plan, a SquareTrade release said Wednesday. Two-thirds of the accidents happened while a pet was unsupervised, the study found, and male pets are 50 percent more likely than female pets to damage electronic devices.