Dealing with pets after separation, part 1: Understanding the law on personal property.

• Author: Boyd, John-Paul

Family law is about how serious cohabiting relationships start and end, how children are cared for after separation, how the bills are paid after separation, and how the property and debts that accumulated during a relationship are split when it ends. Despite the folks who'd very much like to apply for custody of or access to their pets after separation, the law on custody, guardianship and access only applies to human children. In the eyes of the law, pets are personal property, like a coffee cup, a cow or a car. I'm not saying this is right, mind you, just that this is how it is; no matter how attached you might be to your pet, your pet is property. As the adjudicator said in Gardiner-Simpson v Cross, a 2008 case from Nova Scotia:

"[4] Emotion notwithstanding, the law continues to regard animals as personal property. There are no special laws governing pet ownership that would compare to the way that children and their care are treated by statutes such as the [statutes on family law]. Obviously there are laws that prohibit cruelty to animals, but there are no laws that dictate that an animal should be raised by the person who loves it more or would provide a better home environment." In this, the first half of two-part article, I'm going to talk about the laws on personal property that might apply when a couple can't agree on how they'll manage their pets after separation. In the second half of this article, I'll describe the sorts of orders you can and can't ask the court to make about pets.

Before continuing, however, I need to emphasize the importance of remembering that pets are property, or, to put it another way, that pets are not people. If you have an issue about a pet following separation, it will probably help to make a point of mentally substituting "the toaster" for "the dog" when you're thinking about the problem. Unplugging your feelings from intentionally emotional problems like these can often make it easier to work your way through them.

Here are the general rules about owning and co-owning personal property.

Most of the time, the person who bought the pet owns the pet.

There are some exceptions to this rule, like if you found the animal wandering the streets or you bought the pet as a gift for someone else. However, in general and as with other kinds of personal property, if you bought it, you own it.

If you bought the animal, you can provide evidence of the purchase, and your ownership, through a sales receipt, or a...