Divorce and Pets – Another Reason Prenuptial Agreements Make Sense

Divorce and Your PetIn the midst of divorce, there are laws and systems in place to govern who will end up taking care of and raising children. The children might live with one parent who has full custody, or they might instead spend their time divided between households.

In Canadian family law, there are disagreements as to whether pets are assets or should be treated as children when it comes to which spouse gets to keep them. Each situation calls for different action, and sometimes the court actually looks towards “the best interests of the pet”, meaning which “parent” will have a better yard, be able to pay for veterinary care or tends to go away on vacation less often. In other situations, the court might actually establish visitation arrangements for the pet.

It’s not unusual to be extremely attached to your pet, and pets are sometimes used as pawns in court battles, where one parent might believe they’ve got a better chance of getting full custody of their human children if they’re the ones keeping the family dog.

There was even a case where a Canadian couple divorced, and one spouse moved out of the country, leaving his dog behind with his ex-wife. Upon his return, he began campaigning for custody access to the dog, and eventually the judge determined it would suit the best interests of the dog to be with both “parents”, and the couple began alternating one week each on and off with the dog.

Another Canadian case saw a couple fighting over who actually owned a dog, because one of them had paid for it but the other one said it was a gift. The judge declined the request for joint custody and claimed the buyer was the owner. This same couple spent thousands of dollars in legal fees just to determine who would keep the $100.00 pet.

Creating a prenuptial agreement will prevent arguments like who gets to keep the pets from springing up during a divorce, and pet custody is only one of the many things they can cover.

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By heather - Last updated: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Filed in Divorce, Prenuptial Agreements • Tags: , , ,