Pets and Divorce - Determining Pet "Custody"

Divorces can be a messy process, with both sides fighting for the custody of kids, ownership of the house, and rights to alimony money. Anyone who's ever known an obsessed pet owner knows that they'll fight tooth and nail to keep their beloved Fido or Mittens. So when it comes to divorce and pets, the court battles can get quite heated and vitriolic. Neither side wants to give up the pet they love, and so the divorce can get hung up over who will get to keep the animal.

While the dog or cat (or snake or bird, etc.) may be a genuine member of the family in the eyes of its owners, in the eyes of the law, they are pieces of property. While many couples like to argue over who will be better able to provide for the dog and who will provide the dog with emotional security, the courts really don't care and view such grand-standing as unnecessary theatrics.

However, a case in Gloucester County in Pennsylvania may be re-writing the way the courts treat pets in divorce cases. Doreen Houseman has gone to court a second time over the "custody" of the six-year-old dog Dexter she and her ex-husband owned together. She said that he broke an oral contract promising her the ownership of the dog and that now he is withholding the pet as a form of emotional abuse.

The main thrust of Houseman's argument is that the court is being discriminatory when it treats her beloved Dexter as just another possession. She argues that the judge should consider what's best for the dog, and she and a group of animal defense attorneys want to use the case of Michael Vick as a precedent. The credence the court is paying to the argument suggests that the long-held practice of treating pets as nothing more than items to be given to one party or another may be changing.

Until that day comes, though, you'll have to come to some sort of agreement with your soon-to-be ex about who gets custody of the animal. It may be difficult to decide who gets to keep Rover, but it's an important decision you'll have to make eventually and the sooner you can come to an agreement about it, the better.

For more information about the divorce process and pet custody, visit kleinattorneys.com.