Litigation » Alaska Urges Divorce Court Judges to Think of the Pets

Alaska Urges Divorce Court Judges to Think of the Pets

January 31, 2017

short haired Dachshund Dog isolated over white background

Alaska became the first state to require that courts “take into consideration the well-being of the animal” when a couple with pets gets divorced. Under current law in much of the U.S., animals are property, so Alaska’s law, which took effect last week, is having ripple effects in the world of animal law. “It is significant,” David Favre, a Michigan State University law professor who specializes in animal law, told the Washington Post. “For the first time, a state has specifically said that a companion animal has visibility in a divorce proceeding beyond that of property – that the court may award custody based on what is best for the dog, not the human owners.” Kathy Hessler, director of the Animal Law Clinic at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., said, “The relationship with the animal is what is important in the family law context, so the property law analysis tends to be a poor fit for resolving disputes, and in fact, many of the property settlement agreements are continuously disputed, making more work for the courts.” The Alaska law also includes pets in domestic violence protective orders and requires the owners of pets seized in cruelty or neglect cases to cover the cost of their shelter.

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