Fighting Like Cats and Dogs: The Rising Number of Custody Battles over the Family Pet
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Fighting Like Cats and Dogs:
The Rising Number of Custody Battles Over the Family Pet
T. Christopher Wharton*
INTRODUCTION
Forget the phrase man's best friend. Today, household pets enjoy increasing
prevalence as non-human members of the modem American family.' Currently,
when families decide to separate, pets are classified as chattel-no different from
the silverware, the plasma TV, and the living-room sofa-a classification which
seems rigid, antiquated, and ill-equipped to deal with pet custody issues.2 The legal
status of pets as mere items of personal property must adapt to meet the evolving
status of pets in modem American society. This note proceeds in five parts. Part I
introduces the conflict between the importance of pets in society and their current
legal status. Parts II and III will then review the issues presented in several historic
and modem pet custody trials. Finally, Parts IV and V analyze recent changes in
animal law and how these changes may help future pet custody disputes.
II. .LETTING THE CAT OUT OF THE BAG
THE CONFLICT BETWEEN PETS' STATUS IN SOCIETY & IN THE LAW
According to a survey conducted by the American Animal Hospital
Association, eighty-three percent of pet owners referred to themselves as mom
or dad.3 The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) found that of
the millions, of pet owners in this country, nearly half considered their pets to be
full-fledged family members.4 The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF)
reported that forty-five percent of the dog guardians they surveyed take their pets
with them on vacations.5 ALDF also states, [i]f stranded on a desert island, more
than fifty percent of companion animal guardians would prefer the company of
their cat or dog to that of another human and almost the same amount of
respondents stated they would be 'very likely' to risk their lives for their
animal.6
* Junior Staff Member, Journal of Law & Family Studies; J.D. candidate 2009.
'Joyce Tischler & Bruce Wagman, Lawyers Must Plan for More Pet Custody Cases, ANIMAL
LEGAL DEF. FUND, Aug. 18, 2006, www.aldf.org/news/details.php?id=192.
2 Jane Porter, It can be a Regular Dog Fight; Family Pets Involved in a Growing Number of
Custody Cases, HARTFORD COURTANT, July 10, 2006, at D1.
31d.
4 AM. VETERINARY MED. ASS'N, U.S. PET OWNERSHIP & DEMOGRAPHICS SOURCEBOOK (2007),
available at http://www.avma.org/reference/marketstats/sourcebook.asp.
5 Tischler & Wagman, supra note 1, at 1.
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Fighting Like Cats and Dogs: The Rising Number of Custody Battles over the Family Pet
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