Pets hold a special place in the hearts of many people. They are beloved companions, trusted friends, and members of the family. Therefore, families contemplating divorce often wonder what will happen to the pets.
Divorce in Arizona is governed by Title 25 of the Arizona Revised Statutes. There is no provision in Title 25 giving special recognition to the importance pets hold in our lives. Instead, pets are treated as property subject to equitable division in a divorce proceeding. This means that if the parties cannot agree who will keep the pets, a judge will have the discretion to make that decision, and to determine if the party not awarded the pets is entitled to compensation for his/her interest in the pets.
The Court may assign a monetary value to the pet and include it as part of a pool of assets to be equitably divided. This is precisely what occurred in the 1969 decision in Hayne v. Hayne, where the Arizona Court of Appeals accepted that the value of two pedigreed dogs owned by the family was $100.00 each and included the dogs on a list of property along with such items as a station wagon and household furniture. See Hayne v. Hayne, 449 P.2d 633 (1969). The monetary value assigned to the pet can vary and will likely depend on such factors as the pedigree of the pet, whether the pet is able to perform in shows or has specialized training that could increase its value, the pet's age, and the pet's health.
Often families are able to resolve the issue of the pets without relying on the assistance of the Court. Often such arrangements tend to treat the pets in a manner that is more analogous to the treatment of children in divorce, rather than treating the pets as property to be equitably divided. Sometimes parties will enter in an "parenting plan" to share the pet, in which each person spends certain days of the week with the pet, and the parties exchange the pet back and forth between their respective homes. If the parties have children, they will sometimes have an arrangement where the pet moves back and forth between the parties with the children, so the children are always in the same household as the pet. A myriad of other arrangements are also possible and only limited by the creativity of the family.
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