Who Keeps the Dog in a Divorce?
Your pets are part of your family. Often, couples have pets before they have children, and sometimes they have pets instead of kids. Most households own some type of pet. In fact, pet ownership has increased significantly over the last 30 years. As of 2023, about 66% of households in the United States are home to a pet. That equates to about almost 90 million homes. When couples divorce, they need to decide which one will keep the family pet.
Pets are Property
Matthew R. Arnold of Arnold & Smith, PLLC answers the question “What are my custody rights if the other parent moves?”
Family law attorneys are used to hearing and seeing it all. The combination of anger, embarrassment and hurt feelings can combine to cause good people to act out in all manner of strange ways. One area that was often a central focus of this acting out concerned custody battles, with the parents engaging in brutal battles to secure more advantageous custody or visitation arrangements. While this is certainly still the case among some couples, a new subject has recently been getting attention: pet custody.
Charlotte Divorce Lawyer Blog