Who Gets Fido or Fluffy?

    In some ways, the dissolution of Robert Boyd's almost eight-year marriage came down to a check-list of who would receive the belongings his wife and he had accumulated over the years. When it came to deciding who would get their two cats and dog, Boyd took a practical, if somewhat painful approach. After all, the couple had bonded with their pets -- Cosmo, a shepherd mix, and Bootsie and Anakin, the feline cohorts.

The decision eventually came on a simple question: Where would their animals be better off?

"I took the practical approach. I know she was afraid to mention it, but I knew what needed to be done," says Boyd, a 39-year-old Riverside, Calif., resident who blogs about divorce for divorce360.com. "One cat (Bootsie) she’d had since before we were married, he was hers. The other cat (Anakin), we got just before we got married. I didn’t want to separate the cats, because they were so used to each other. I knew they would miss each other more than they’d miss either of us. So, since she was taking one, she should take the other. The dog was more about the yard. I’m glad I have him, but if she’d had the space and wanted him, I wouldn’t have fought her for him." 

Divorce lawyers and animal rights experts agree that couples should take Boyd's approach to deciding who gets Fluffy when their marriages end. That doesn't always happen, though, especially when people view their pets as more than property, which is what the family dog, cat, or parakeet is considered legally.

"In the eyes of the law, they are really no different than the silverware, the cars, the home," says Joyce Tischler, director of litigation for the Animal Legal Defense Fund.

Consider the numbers. Sixty-three percent -- 71.1 million -- of U.S. households own pets, the 2007-2008 National Pet Owners Survey reports. The bulk of those animals are dogs -- 44.8 million-- and cats -- 34.8 million. Americans are expected to spend about $41 billion on their pets this year -- a $24 billion increase since 1994, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

Then throw in lifestyle and societal changes: more couples have fewer children than a generation or two ago and view their pets as their kids or companions; owners pay $2,000 for an orthopedist to reconstruct a dog's knee; designers such as Isaac Mizrahi create pink trench coats and white tulle bridal dresses for the fashion-conscious pooch whose owner shops at Target; and high-end pet stores sell rhinestone-studded dog collars, peanut butter biscotti instead of run-of-the-mill dog treats, and strollers for the walking-averse pampered pooch. 

"When you put all of that together, it's no wonder that we're beginning to see an increasing number of custody battles involving companion animals," Tischler says.