Articles Tagged with pet divorce

DogWho 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

Board Certified Family Law Specialist Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can I do to gain custody of my child in North Carolina?”

People often discuss how when divorce happens, children can wind up caught in the middle. It’s true, children are sometimes used as pawns, with one parent attempting to deprive the other of time with the kids as a way of exacting revenge. Parents caught in a terrible struggle can lose sight of the best interests of the children, letting their own hurt feelings cloud their better judgment.

Board Certified Family Law Specialist Matt Arnold answers the question: “What can I do to gain custody of my child in North Carolina?”

We’ve discussed pets and divorce previously and the issue is almost always handled the same way no matter where you are. Though we might consider our pets part of the family, the fact is that the law does not. In fact, in a divorce, courts across the country have long operated under the assumption that pets are no different than any other piece of property. Rather than subjecting the division of the pets to the same kind of best interest test that children enjoy, pets get allocated between the parties like a couch or some old dishes.

Board Certified Family Law Specialist Matt Arnold answers the question: “How will the judge divide our property?”

A recent divorce case in Canada dealt with the thorny issue of what to do with a pet after a divorce. The couple in question had three dogs and the wife had asked that she be given custody of all the pets, but requested that the judge grant visitation for 1.5 hours each week to her ex-husband. Though this might seem like a fair compromise, the judge presiding over the case took the opportunity to clearly lay out why he believes courts have no business intervening in such matters.

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.

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