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Who gets the pets in a divorce? · Family Law Talk

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Family Law Talk. Family Law Talk presented by
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  Kirk Stangy of Stangy Law Firm PC. Stangy Law Firm
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  is a multi state family law firm. Now here's your host,
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  Kirk Stangy.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to Family Law Talk. We have an interesting topic today.
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  The topic is who gets the pets in a divorce?
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  And this episode today is based on an article on
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  our blog, Tulsa Divorce lawyersblog dot com dated December second,
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  twenty twenty four, and the title of the article is
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  who gets the family pet and a Tulsa, Oklahoma divorce. So,
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  as a follow up to the episode today, go on
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  over to this blog and read this article from more information.
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  All right, but let's go ahead and jump on in.
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  The reality is in a divorce, the pets can become
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  a big issue. And this isn't something lots of individuals
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  think about. Most are thinking about property and debt, division, caussey,
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  the kids, child support and spousal maintenance and issues such
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  as this. But the pets can really become a big issue.
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  And this is particularly true where both parties love these
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  pets and both parties are attached to the pets, and
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  so this can be a giant issue that can hang
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  up a lot of divorce cases, and can you really
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  hamper a settlement. So let's go ahead and jump in
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  in terms of who gets the pets and the divorce.
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  And again I would just say, as a general rule,
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  the laws in each state can vary, and so you
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  want to speak to a lawyer who's licensed and competent
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  to practice law on your jurisdiction. But in a general sense,
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  most states, and I know this sounds harsh, but most
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  states treat pets is property. So the pets get lumped
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  in with other marital property. If the pets were acquired
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  during the marriage. Okay, so they get lumped in with
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  the house, the cars, the four to one ks, all
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  these other assets. And so that's the truth. And I
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  know that can be harsh. Now, look, there's some states
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  that are adjusting their laws in terms of pets and
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  creating the guidelines in terms of where pets can be
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  treated more like kids, and there can be cussy there.
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  And I say that not to be too light hearted,
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  because I have pets and I certainly love my pets,
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  but most states treat them as property. And that's the truth.
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  Now there's other states where they're moving toward treating the
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  pets differently. So speak to a lawyer in your jurisdiction
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  and see if through specific statutes are case on your
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  jurisdiction which create something different there in terms of the pets.
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  But again, in a general sense, in most states and
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  really traditionally pets are treated as property. So what has
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  to happen in a divorce is the parties typically have
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  to agree who's going to get the pets in the
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  divorce action. Okay, so it could be one smouskets one pet,
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  the other spouse gets another pet. It could be one
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  spouse gets all the pets. Again, that could be divided
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  up in certain manners, but typically speaking, they are not
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  visitation rights associated with pets in most jurisdictions. In other words,
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  the judge wouldn't order like custody or visitation with the
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  pets if the case was taken to trial, right, I mean,
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  normally in a divorce, the judge is just going to
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  order one spouse to get you know, X Y or
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  Z pet and the other spouse to get X Y
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  or Z pet. And that's kind of it. And I
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  know that can be quite a bit traumatic for individuals
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  who again have strong bonds with their pets. They love
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  their pets, and they'd like it to be, you know,
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  sort of different. You know, they'd like the pets to
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  be treated much more like custody of kids, where the
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  pets go back and forth. All right, in terms of
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  who courts will give the pets two Obviously this is
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  in the discretion of the judge. But in a general sense,
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  you know, some things that judge oftentimes look at, which
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  is who has primary possession of the pet. So you know,
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  if one party in a divorce has got possession of
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  the pet, they've been the primary caretaker of that pet,
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  they've been the one primarily responsible for the pet, then
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  oftentimes a judge will give the pet to that individual. Okay,
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  So that can be the case for sure. Obviously, this
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  can be very much a fat question, and this could
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  be in dispute, and it could be a situation where
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  both parties shared responsibility for the pet, which can make
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  this more troublesome because both parties were involved and now
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  theoretically one of them isn't going to have any contact
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  with a pet anymore, all right. You know. Having said that,
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  parties can oftentimes reach an agreement in terms of what's
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  going to take place with the pets in other words,
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  more like a contract. So parties oftentimes can come up
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  with an agreement for the pets going back and forth
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  between the two homes, and it can be in a
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  legally binding agreement in other words, part of the marital
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  settlement separation agreement where property and debt is divided. So
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  typically if parties can agree to something and they'll sign
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  off on it, then theoretically the pets could go back
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  and forth between two homes on some kind of schedule.
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  But in a general sense, most judges aren't going to
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  order that because pets are property, and typically with property,
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  it's just you know, it's awarded the spouse one, or
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  it's awarded to spouse two, and that's kind of it.
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  But again, some parties via settlement can come up with
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  an agreement and oftentimes a judge will approve that. All right,
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  let's go into some other questions about this topic, and
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  that is what is marital property. Well, look, marital property
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  is any property acquired during marriage. Okay, So in theory,
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  if a party had a pet before the marriage, say
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  it's a dog or cat or something like that, they
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  had it before the marriage, then that would be separate
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  property and they would be entitled to their separate property.
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  Where the pet issue gets tricky is where the pet
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  was purchased during marriage, and if it's purchased during marriage,
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  it's marital property, and that ultimately is when it can
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  be dicey. If both parties love the pet and both
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  parties want the pet all right. In terms of what
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  factors are considered when dividing marital property, you're going to
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  want to look at the statute in your jurisdiction. Most
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  states are equitable distribution states, although there are community property
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  states out there as well, like Texas, and so this
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  can vary based on what state you're in. But typically
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  with marital property and debt and an equitable jurisdiction, the
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  court's got a divide it in a manner that's just.
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  And so this becomes very subjective, and again courts can
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  look at things like who is the primary caretaker of
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  the pet in terms of who gets the thing pet
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  divorce again, who gets it? Look generally, the party who
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  was primarily responsible for that pet will get that pet. Again,
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  if somebody had the pet before marriage, then that's generally
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  separate property. They would get that pet, but the court
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  is going to have to make a decision on it
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  if the parties cannot agree. So the hope with being
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  a lot of these cases is the parties can agree
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  who's going to get what pet, and if the pet's
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  going to go back and forth, then there's an agreement
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  on how that's going to take place. Because the most
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  jurisdictions court's not going to come up with that and
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  do that unless they have really the specific authority to
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  do that in their jurisdiction. And keep this in mind
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  as well, it could be hard to transport kids back
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  and forth for cussy exchanges. Think about transporting kids back
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  and forth and a pet. That could be very difficult.
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  Lots of individuals vehicles aren't big enough to even do that.
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  It's hard enough to get the kids in there and
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  the stuff they're bringing back and forth in a vehicle,
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  and I got to put pets in there can be
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  very challenging. And you know, I think most listeners know too.
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  Certain pets and certain types of animals are easier to
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  transport back and forth and theory like a dog, but
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  cats don't like to be moved, as one example, so
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  it's very hard to get a cat oftentimes you know,
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  in a vehicle to go to the other party's house.
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  That could be very, very difficult and very challenging. All right.
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  In terms of can shared custody of a pet take place, again,
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  I've kind of covered that. In most states, pets are
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  marital property. So there's typically not a likelihood that a
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  judge is going to do that unless there's specific stantiatory
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  authority in a state. But if the parties can reach
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  out to agreement to do it, and they can put
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  this in their marital settlement separation agreement, I mean, from
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  my experience, most judges will approve it if the parties agree,
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  They're just not just not going to order it. Now.
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  In terms of states that theoretically are on the cutting
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  edge in terms of this issue in terms of pets, again,
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  speak to a lawyer who's licensed and competent to practice
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  law in your jurisdiction. But there are some states that
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  seem to have a little bit more of an opening here,
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  seem to be a little bit more progressive on this issue,
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  like Alaska, California, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Washington,
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  d C. Even Vermont. Again, I'm only licensed in Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, though,
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  so you definitely want to speak to a lawyer who's
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  licensed and competent to practice law on your jurisdiction who
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  could tell you more about these states and if there's
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  other options there. But again, as a whole, pets are
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  treated as property, and typically the way this works is
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  the court in these states is going to give it
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  to spouse one or spouse two, and if parties can
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  reach out to agreement for some kind of back and
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  forth of the pets, a lot of judges will approve that.
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  But as in agreement, typically that wouldn't be the case.
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  All right, So again, an interesting topic, one that lots
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  of folks are concerned about, particularly those who have pets
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  and who love them dearly. And I understand the topic,
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  like I say, I've got pets, I love mine dearly,
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  So I get it and I understand, but it's an
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  important one I wanted to cover today, all right. As
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  a follow up to the episode today, going over to
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  Tulsa Divorce lawyersblog dot com read the article titled who
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  gets the Family Pet and a Toulsa, Oklahoma divorce for
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  more information. But thanks for tuning in today. Stay tuned
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  to our next episode of Family Law Talk coming up.
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  Thank you very much.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to Family Law Talk with Kirk Stangy.
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  Visit Stangy Lawfirm dot com for more about today's topic
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  or to put Stangy Lawfirm to work for your family today.
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