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Pup Prenups: An Overwhelming Number of People Say They Support Proactively Deciding the Fate of Their Pets Should They Divorce
By: Sydney Lake
Even the best laid plans fail sometimes. Take marriage, for example. In 2022, there were more than 673,000 divorces and annulments in the U.S., according to data from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although prenuptial agreements have historically been taboo or otherwise only useful for the ultra-wealthy, they’re actually becoming more popular.
Half of U.S. adults in 2023 reported they at least somewhat support using a prenup, according to Harris Poll data—a pretty significant jump from 2022 data. It’s not just the popularity of prenups that’s changed, but also their contents and coverage.
Typically, prenups detail the assets that each person has going into the marriage, what will remain separate property of each person, how to divide assets, and establish alimony. They’ll usually outline how to divide up homes, joint bank accounts, and other valuable assets. But now that 51% of pet owners in the U.S. not only consider their pets as much a part of their family as a human member, according to Pew Research Center, more couples are also including provisions about what will happen to their furry friends should the marriage end in divorce.
Indeed, 84% of pet parents support the idea of proactively deciding the fate of their pets should their relationship end, according to a survey of 1,000 pet parents conducted by Rover, a mobile app that connects pet parents with pet caregivers. Currently, more than one-fourth of co-pet parents have an official pet care agreement, such as a pet prenup.
What a pup prenup looks like
While the law in most states treats pets as the “same as the antique vase” in a divorce, other states including New York, California, Alaska, and Illinois take into consideration the “best interest” of the pet, Atty Bruggemann, a family-law attorney and partner at Dimopoulos Bruggemann P.C., tells Fortune. The “best interest” standard is the same one used in custody cases for children, but modified for pets. It considers who the pet spent the most time with, was taken to the vet most by, and who has the time to spend with the pet after the divorce.
The excerpts above are from a Fortune article authored by Sydney Lake. Read the full piece, originally published on July 6, 2024, here.
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