Pet prenups are the hot new divorce trend

By: Erin Snodgrass

Fighting over Fido has never been easier.

More and more Americans are celebrating their impending nuptials by securing a prenup, a legal document that outlines how an engaged couple's assets would be split in the case of divorce.

And divorce lawyers are seeing an uptick in the inclusion of pet provisions in prenups, ensuring beloved animals are accounted for should the relationship go awry.

Courts have long been accustomed to treating pets as property in divorce, deciding an animal's fate alongside other assets, like homes and earnings.

These days, however, changing state laws, evolving attitudes around animal ethics, and a pandemic spike in adoptions have led to an uptick in so-called pet prenups, several divorce attorneys and mediators told Business Insider.

The factors spurring pet prenups

Shifting legal and cultural attitudes toward pets could be contributing to the rise in pet prenups, divorce experts said.

While pets are still considered personal property in most of the country, some states have started considering their "best interest" by applying the same standard used in child custody cases to animals, said New York family law attorney Atty Bruggemann. Alaska, California, Illinois, Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Washington, DC, all have such laws in place, according to Hello Divorce.

The excerpts above are from a Business Insider article authored by Erin Snodgrass. Read the full piece, originally published on August 26, 2024, here.