Alaska Pets to Be Treated Like Children during Divorce
Animal activists call legislation “groundbreaking and unique”
In a landmark ruling, Alaska becomes the first state in the U.S to require courts to take “into consideration the well-being of the animal” and to explicitly empower judges to assign joint custody of pets during divorce proceedings.
According to a report by Washington Post, the move has been lauded by Animal Legal Defense Fund who called it both “groundbreaking and unique”.
In all other states current law dictates that animals are property and hence fall under the part of “property distribution” in a divorce.
David Favre, Michigan State University law professor who specializes in animal law said to WP that the ruling is significant. “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 on the basis of what is best for the dog, not the human owners,” he said.
Animal rights activists are hopeful that many states follow suit and allow pets to be handled as part of child custody proceedings during divorce.
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