Pet custody issues in a divorce

For many Wisconsin couples, pets are part of the family. When a divorce happens, the couple may see the pets as family members that should be subject to custody agreements. However, the law sees pets as property rather than as members of the family, like children. Therefore, different rules apply to pet ownership after divorce than are used to determine child custody.

The determination of the post-divorce ownership of a couple’s pets is normally seen by courts as part of the property division process. In most cases, a court will only award pets to one spouse or another. Having the pets travel weekly from one home to another, as children often do under custody agreements, is not usually an option. Instead, the court will have to decide, in the absence of an agreement, which partner retains ownership of the pet.

Before the court makes this decision, the judge will consider the circumstances in which the pet came to be owned by the couple. This can be important if one of the spouses owned the pet prior to the marriage, as state laws usually provide that any property belonging to one spouse before the marriage is considered to be separately owned and therefore not subject to division.

While most judges will adhere to the property division approach when dealing with pet ownership, courts in some jurisdictions have begun to consider the best interests of the pet and the wishes of the owners in making a decision on these matters. For those who are facing these and other divorce legal issues, the advice of a family law attorney is often valuable.