If you don’t have a pet, it might seem like a minor, even a frivolous issue. If you do have a pet, you know that it’s anything but. When you and your spouse divorce in Arizona, who gets custody of your pets?
For pet owners, their dogs, cats, and other companion animals are often truly like members of the family. Unlike minor children, however, the law does not consider pets “people” with their own legal rights and interests. Instead, legally speaking, at least, they are property — no matter if they’re your “babies.”
Arizona Pet Custody Problem-Solving
Arizona is a community property state, but unlike bank accounts or kitchen cookware, you can’t just divide your pets in half. Even if you have two pets, it might not be best for each of you to take one, if the animals are attached to each other. So how do you solve this problem?
If you’re thinking ahead and drafting a prenuptial agreement, you can agree in advance how you would deal with pet custody in the event of a divorce, even if you don’t have any pets at the time of your marriage. If one of you brought a pet into the marriage, it makes sense for that pet to go with the person who had him or her first.
Surprisingly, if you have minor children, that may make pet custody issues easier to deal with: it may be best for everyone if the pets travel from home to home with the kids. Children usually feel most at home where their pets are, so the transition from dad’s home to mom’s, and vice versa, is often eased when the pets travel with the children. This is a win-win: the kids get the comfort and stability of always having their pets at home with them, and both parents get time with the pets as well.
What if there is no prenuptial agreement, no pet ownership that preceded the marriage, and no kids whose movements the pet can follow? A court will typically honor whatever agreement you and your spouse can reach, so it’s best to try to work this out between you if you can, perhaps with the help of mediation. No matter how much you value your pet, you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars litigating over him or her, and a court will typically not order “visitation” with a pet, but will treat it like property and award it to one party or the other.
If a couple can’t come up with a solution on their own, a judge may consider several factors when it comes to who gets the family pet, including who initially acquired the pet, who paid for its care, what’s in the best interest of the animal and the family as a whole.