It starts as puppy love, straight out of a Hallmark movie: a girl adopts the shaggy puppy from the local animal shelter, the shelter’s vet volunteer drops by to do a home check where they bond over their affection for the pet, fall in love, and get married. They do everything with each other and their dog, now affectionately named “Buddy.” Wife works from home and takes Buddy to the dog park during lunch breaks. Husband provides all of Buddy’s medical care and takes him to canine classes. Then, Wife and Husband become Mom and Dad. Although Buddy instantly bonds with the littlest human member of their family, Mom and Dad begin to fight like cats and dogs. Their marriage is undeniably breaking down. Both parties want Buddy in the divorce. After all, he has been an important member of their family since the beginning. Now, we, as family law practitioners, need to assist the parties in determining how they are going to resolve this “pet custody” issue. 

We often tell our clients to focus on the broader settlement picture and to avoid getting hung up on what we believe to be the more minor issues. However, if you take a “let sleeping dogs lie” approach, it might come back to bite you when you get to the last provision of the Marital Settlement Agreement, and pet custody becomes the dealbreaker. Who gets custody of a pet can become the ultimate “tail that wags the dog”—the key issue that controls whether you can settle the divorce. 

Hold Your Horses!

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]