Each year, numerous couples in Massachusetts race down the aisle to get married and connect their hearts in the everlasting happiness referred to as marriage. Some avoid the rules completely and just cohabitate.
Somewhere along the method, they get a family pet, or perhaps 2.
After a while, the appeal wears away. When it does, she wishes to dispose the troglodyte, and he can’t load rapidly enough.
All good ideas concern an end. The boy gets the car, and the lady gets the house and home furnishings.
But who gets the family pets?
The Shih Tzu and British Shorthair cat can’t choose on their own which of their human beings they want to deal with, so who chooses?
According to Mass.gov, “The brief response is that in the Massachusetts courts, as in the remainder of the nation, family pets are thought about property under the law, and are dealt with as such throughout a divorce or split in between single individuals.”
The website says, “In divorce procedures, they (family pets) run out legal identity than a light or a table.”
Mass.gov says the website Law About Animals “has laws and cases connected to animal law in Massachusetts, in addition to a referral to a short article worrying family pets and divorce from Massachusetts Family Law.”
The book Every Dog’s Legal Guide says, “Overburdened courts are unlikely to take on the challenge of supervising how divorcing couples deal with their pets…Don’t for a minute think that the court is a good place to resolve your disagreements about who gets the dog.”
The guide says the courts “almost always simply award ownership of an animal to one spouse or the other, usually with minimal discussion.” If you owned the pet before the relationship formed, chances are good you will retain custody.
The book recommends mediation outside the court if at all possible.
LOOK: Here are the pets banned in each state
Because the regulation of exotic animals is left to states, some organizations, including The Humane Society of the United States, advocate for federal, standardized legislation that would ban owning large cats, bears, primates, and large poisonous snakes as pets.
Read on to see which pets are banned in your home state, as well as across the nation.
Why do cats have whiskers? Why do they meow? Why do they nap so much? And answers to 47 other kitty questions:
Why do they meow? Why do they nap so much? Why do they have whiskers? Cats, and their undeniably adorable babies known as kittens, are mysterious creatures. Their larger relatives, after all, are some of the most mystical and lethal animals on the planet. Many questions related to domestic felines, however, have perfectly logical answers. Here’s a take a look at a few of the most typical concerns connected to kittens and cats, and the responses cat enthusiasts are trying to find.