'Pre-Pups' Decide Who Gets The Pet In The Event Of A Divorce
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- They're being called "pre-pups" - prenuptials to include your pet.
Many jurisdictions including the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania treat pets as personal property. Family lawyer Mark Momjian is in private practice in Center City and teaches at Villanova University's law school.
"Because Pennsylvania courts won't enforce an agreement to share custody of a companion pet," he says, "many people are looking at separate agreements like a prenuptial agreement where they can deal with what will happen in the event of a divorce or separation, in terms of how we share custody of our dog or cat."
Momjian says most of the prep-pups involve dogs - 85%. 10% of the agreements take care of cats in the event of a split and 5% for other animals like horses, fish and ferrets.