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Pet Custody: Who Gets the Dog in a Divorce?


Every dog has its day—a day of trial in a New York divorce court to determine which "parent" will obtain custody.

Increasingly, the custody of cats and dogs is an issue in family law cases. While our pets are beloved family members, New York courts, up until recently, have been reluctant to consider them as anything other than personal property. Courts have traditionally dealt with the post-divorce custody of pets in the same way that they addressed distributing other personal property like a car or a piece of furniture.

Things may soon change. In 2013, one Manhattan matrimonial judge recognized that pets have a unique and cherished place in the family; they are not chattel or personal property, and to treat them as such would be inappropriate.

On the other hand, dogs, cats and other pets are not children. An already overly burdened divorce court cannot devote the time, expenses and resources to conduct proceedings that mirror the complexity of a child custody case.

Striking a balance between the two extremes, the court ruled that divorcing pet owners would be entitled to a one-day winner-takes-all trial to determine custody of a family dog. The court would apply a standard of what is in the best interests of all concerned. Each party would have the opportunity to prove not only why she would benefit from having Joey (the dog) in her life, but why the dog would have a better chance of living, prospering, loving and being loved in the care of one spouse as opposed to the other.

In order to the make their case, the parties need to address:

  • Who bore the major responsibility for meeting Joey’s needs (i.e., feeding, walking, grooming and taking him to the veterinarian) when the parties lived together?
  • Who spent more time with Joey on a regular basis?
  • Why did the plaintiff leave Joey with the defendant, as the defendant alleges, at the time that the couple separated?
  • And, perhaps most importantly, why has the defendant chosen to have Joey live with her mother in Maine, rather than with her, or with plaintiff for that matter, in New York?

The outcome of this dog custody trial will be winner-takes-all; one owner will have the dog to the exclusion of the other. The court will not order visitation. The court opined that to allow for visitation would result in endless post-divorce litigation. The court, by making this pronouncement, was, in a Solomon-like manner, urging the parties to settle—as the loser of the trial would have no right to see the dog ever again.

Parties are always free to make whatever arrangements they could agree on. I have had divorcing couples agree to split custody as if the dogs were children. I am sure that non-pet owners will not understand what all the fuss is about. But as the court aptly pointed out:

Matrimonial judges spend countless hours on other disputes that do not rise to a level of importance anywhere near that of children. If judicial resources can be devoted to such matters as which party gets to use the Escalade as opposed to the Ferrari, or who gets to stay in the Hamptons house instead of the Aspen chalet, there is certainly room to give real consideration to a case involving a treasured pet.

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This content was originally posted at clementlaw.com/child-custody/pet_custody_in_new_york_who_gets_the_dog_in_a_divorce. The writer retains all copyrights.