Divorce and the Changing World of Pet Custody
When divorces happen, custody battles over children can be extensive. But what happens to furrier family members? Unfortunately, according to the Chicago Family Law Blog, there are very few legal precedents at the moment that provide for placement and custody when it comes to pets. The blog references a recent Chicago Daily Herald article on the subject, in which local family attorney Raiford Palmer states that, when it comes to divorce proceedings, “an animal is treated like a television set or any other piece of property.” And what about visitation rights for the party not awarded ownership? Overall, bad news.
Illinois family law attorney Matthew A. Kirsh says there’s no such thing. There are no “custody” issues with pets, at least not in the legal sense, only ownership.
That said, all is not lost. New precedents are showing that laws and rulings are slowly starting to evolve to reflect the love and commitment owners show to pets:
Arlington Heights lawyer Angela Peters tells [Daily Herald columnist Burt] Constable that no one really has the answer to how pets are treated in a divorce and that it’s still evolving. While the law does not treat pets as children or otherwise subject to custody, financial support or visitation, an American Association of Matrimonial Law article points out that judges sometimes do order joint custody of pets.
There are still no defined laws from state to state on how to deal with pets, giving judges free reign to treat them as property if they so choose. The trend, however, is a hopeful one: that same free reign, with time, is seeing judges understanding pets as something so much more.
