Fur flies in these custody battles
An increasing number of divorcing couples are fighting like cats and dogs over
cherished pets
By Dahleen Glanton
Tribune national correspondent
Published June 19, 2004
ATLANTA -- Lynn Goldstein Nichols still has nightmares about Beanie and Kacey,
the two cats she lost to her ex-husband in a divorce four years ago. And to this
day, she says, it hurts more to think about her lost pets than the 30 days she
spent in jail for disobeying a judge's order to give them up.
"If I could, I would spend all my time crusading to change the laws that say
these living creatures that spend their life with you are nothing more than
property," said Nichols, 54, of Louisville. "If your pets are like your children
and you get a divorce, they end up getting divided up like pots and pans. It's
devastating."
With so many marriages in America ending in divorce, couples aren't just
fighting over the kids or who gets the china and the king-size bed anymore. A
growing number are squaring off over who will end up with the family pet.
In the past decade there has been a proliferation of pet-custody cases, with
judges forced to decide what will happen to the family dog, cat or even the
parakeet when a couple splits.
Though pets generally are considered personal property under most state laws,
pet owners don't always feel that way. As some couples decide to hold off on
having children, experts say, they can become emotionally attached to their pets
and unwilling to give them up without a fight.
In a country with an estimated 160 million pet owners, some will spend hundreds,
even thousands, of dollars to press the issue in court.
While only a handful of lawyers across the country specialize in pet- custody
issues, a growing number of family law professionals are taking on such cases.
Dozens of law schools, including those at Harvard, Yale, Duke, Georgetown and
UCLA, offer animal law classes that have segments on pet custody.
The Animal Legal Defense Fund has filed briefs in several divorce cases asking
that the pet's best interest be taken into consideration.
Three years ago a Virginia woman, Jennifer Kidwell, who had gone through a
three-year legal battle with her ex-husband over their dog, started a Web site
to help others involved in pet-custody disputes. In addition to stories about
court battles across the country, PetCustody.com offers documents pertaining to
pet visitation, prenuptial agreements for pet owners and guardianship of pets.
"These days, pets have achieved elevated status in some families.
They are truly members of the family," said Nancy Peterson, an issues specialist
for the Humane Society of the United States. "So when people separate, it is
easy to turn discussions about who will keep the pet into a legal battle. The
problem is that courts don't often look at pets in the same way."
For Nichols, who does freelance advertising work from home, the custody battle
over five family pets lasted about two years after she filed for divorce from
her husband, Thomas Nichols, a United Parcel Service pilot. During eight years
of marriage, she said, he was not home enough to care for the animals.
After spending $30,000 on the divorce, much of it on the pet-custody battle,
Lynn Nichols ended up with the three dogs and her husband got the two cats. She
also got some jail time.
"I hid the cats every time the sheriff's department came to pick them up, and I
told them they had run away," Nichols said. "When the judge found out what I was
doing, he charged me with contempt. I never thought I would end up in jail. But
I was doing what I thought was best to protect my pets."
Nichols did not get any pet visitation rights. She said she has no idea whether
the cats, which she adopted as stray kittens, are alive.
"When I think about them, it makes me absolutely heartsick. I have no idea where
my ex-husband is or whether Beanie and Kacey are being taken care of," Nichols
said. "My vet wrote a letter telling the judge that the dogs and cats should all
live together as sibling children in the home they were raised in and with a
person who was home all the time with them. But the judge didn't want to hear
it."
While that case was extreme, experts said, it has by no means been the only such
battle. During the past 10 years there have been several court rulings
throughout the country in cases that turned ugly.
"There are a growing number of these cases, and they are a pain,"
said Peter Borchelt, a New York City animal behaviorist who has testified in a
half-dozen cases. "Either they are workable or they are not, depending on how
agreeable the parties are. Just like in a child-custody case, most of the time
the adult emotions get involved and it gets out of hand."
A judge in St. Louis ruled in one couple's dispute that each would get one of
their dogs, and each would have visitation rights to see the other dog. The
judge also ordered that the animals, which had spent most of their lives
together, would undergo a veterinary evaluation to determine whether they
suffered from separation anxiety.
In Colorado Springs, a judge ordered a man to pay $40 a month in pet support for
the family dog. The judge said the children were so distraught over the divorce
that they needed the pet's companionship.
One of the most publicized cases occurred in San Diego, centering on a
pointer-greyhound mix named Gigi who became a central character in Dr. Stanley
and Linda Perkins' divorce. Initially the Perkinses were granted joint custody
of the dog they had adopted from a shelter, but neither was satisfied with the
arrangement.
After a two-year court battle, $150,000 in legal fees, a court- ordered "bonding
study" prepared by an animal behaviorist and videotapes showing Gigi lounging at
home and having fun at the beach, the judge awarded full custody to Linda
Perkins.
Changing laws regarding how pets are viewed legally--now they are personal
property in most states--would have to occur state by state or involve a ruling
from the U.S. Supreme Court, said Linda Cawley, a Denver attorney who
specializes in animal issues. So far, no case has made it that far.
"It is hard to get courts to deem pets as emotional property. As personal
property, owners are entitled to no more than the fair market value of the
animal. So it is even hard to sue an airline when a dog dies in cargo," said
Cawley, who has handled dozens of court cases in the past 10 years.
But for people such as Nichols, who worry that their pets can't get along
without them, Borchelt, the animal behaviorist, has some news.
"One of the biggest misconceptions is that pets have difficulty functioning when
they are separated from the owners. Most of the time, it's a whole lot less of a
problem for the animals than the people," Borchelt said.
"Within a month or two, the dog is OK. That is evident by the huge number of
dogs that come into shelters and are perfectly normal when they get new owners.
It's the same way when a person gets a divorce.
Once you get married to someone else, everything is fine."
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune