Pet Ownership After a Divorce - What Are the Technicalities?

You and your spouse decided to purchase a puppy when you first married. Now, here you are 5 years later, both attached to your puppy, but not so much to each other anymore. What do you do? Who gets to keep Fido? What are the laws regarding pet ownership in a divorce and what should you know?

According to the website, divorceinfo.com, when it comes to pets in a divorce, they are not handled in the same manner as children. No joint custody is granted because unlike children, pets are treated as personal property in the same manner as a couch, a car, or television set would be. It seems that judges are too busy sorting out details of divorces where humans are concerned to even bother with pets.

So, if you're in a situation where you and your spouse or long time partner have decided to part ways; the best thing you can do is to privately reach your own joint custody agreement and stick to it. If you can't, the law will not be on your side. Animals have laws pertaining to them only when addressing cruelty issues.

Another website, http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&A=1860&S=1 provides this solution: Where the children go, the pet goes. Whoever the children live with full-time gets the pet full-time, for the sake of the children. When the children go to visit the other parent, the pet can go with them. This is all fine and dandy, and may work for some families, but seems to be troublesome unless certain things are provided for the animal at both residences so as to avoid having to take too much back and forth.

Now, what if you don't have children and that solution isn't so perfect for you? You're both adults, and capable of acting like them. Work something out between the two of you, even down to who takes care of what financially, and under what circumstances. The pet shouldn't be tossed around like a weapon, but the sad thing is, oftentimes they are used as such in a not so friendly divorce situation. Factor in who has the best means to take care of the pet like, who has more time, a bigger yard, etc. Make the best decision for the animal, not for yourself.

However, all of this with animals being treated as another piece of property to be split between the two parties in a divorce may soon cease. This website, http://www.nabr.org/AnimalLaw/Custody/index.htm states that new legislation may be in the works at the state level to change that law because several lawsuits seeking visitation or custody of a pet have been filed.

Best advice is to be responsible and act that way. Then a problem of who gets Fido and when should never arise. If it ever does, it can be handled with ease, drama free.