WE CARE LEGAL SERVICES
(1-855-LAW-FAMILY)
Available 24/7 for Divorce, Child Custody, Support, Protection From Abuse, and Adoption Assistance.
www.WeCareLegalPa.com.
Always a free consultation.
By Jan Grossman, Esq.
A divorce is a life-changing experience, containing scores dramas, crises and challenges. One of the greatest sources of marital-break-up stress for our clients, after child custody, is the conflict over the possession of the family pets. These pets can be the “children” of the relationship, with both parties very emotionally attached to their “fur babies.” Some parties attempt to work out a “pet visitation schedule,” but this cannot be enforced by the courts. Unlike some other more enlightened states, in Pennsylvania, by common law, the courts will not get involved in “pet custody battles.”
Like it or not, our Superior Court has ruled that animals are property, like a sofa, vacuum cleaner or a clock. So, since you don’t get visitation with furniture, the courts are not going to compel warring couples to share time with pets. Also, our local judges believe that their extremely busy dockets do not leave time for pet issues. As one judge remarked to me over a dispute over a cherished Himalayan cat, “Why are you “littering” up my courtroom with this case?” This often means that the first person in a break-up to grab and possess a pet ends up keeping it.
At WE CARE LEGAL SERVICES (1-855-LAW-FAMILY), www.wecarelegalpa.com, we totally understand the importance of a beloved pet to the emotional well-being of our divorce clients. We often have clients who our inconsolable if their spouse has taken their treasured life-long furry companion. Often, as a marriage deteriorates, a pet is an endless source of comfort and solace. Sometimes, a vengeful spouse will take a pet that they don’t really want or care for, just to exact brutal emotional revenge.
Because of the legal limitations, in our family law practice, we are not always successful in returning our client’s pets, but we have developed some legal interventions, beyond basic common law, that have produced solid results and wonderful client-pet reunions. These strategies bypass the cold concept of pet-loved-ones as mere property and go to the legal effect of the devastation of pet loss on the emotional well-being and health of our clients and their children. Our local judges are fair and they do have feelings. When a pet case is placed before them that speaks not of property but of heart, sometimes judges really listen.
If nothing else works, pets have sometimes been returned as to our clients as “property,” through negotiation, because there is something else “of value” that the other side wants more. As crass as it seems, opposing spouses may value the 60″ HDTV, the four-poster bed, or the family computer (the one with all the password-protected, secret emails) over the cherished pet that they are holding for ransom. Because of the lack of trust, just like a medieval movie, there can be a “hostage exchange” in a “neutral location” (like a WAWA parking lot under the surveillance cameras) so nobody reneges on the bargain.
At WE CARE LEGAL SERVICES (1-855-LAW-FAMILY), www.wecarelegalpa.com, at your free consultation for any family law problem, whether its divorce, child custody, support, protection from abuse, adoption, or name change, our first concern is your peace of mind and well-being, as we support you is sorting out a plan for addressing your legal issues. We are available right now and 24/7. Thank you and hug your pet for us.
