--- title: Alaska Divorce Courts Will Treat Pets Similarly to Children description: Pets will be treated more similarly to children than property in Alaskan divorce courts, thanks to a new amendment. canonical: https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-01-25T19:37:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:53.570Z og:title: These Divorce Courts Will Now Treat Pets Like Kids og:description: A new way to consider "who gets the dog?" og:url: https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58b1a111147e4531/6988b722cf40a83274c462fa/alaska-divorce-court-pets-kids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2000 og:image:height: 1125 og:image:alt: On a picnic with my family og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: These Divorce Courts Will Now Treat Pets Like Kids twitter:description: A new way to consider "who gets the dog?" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58b1a111147e4531/6988b722cf40a83274c462fa/alaska-divorce-court-pets-kids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # These Divorce Courts Will Now Treat Pets Like Children > Sponsored content. 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MONEY VIDEO_  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 25, 2017 7:37 PM UTC  Young smiling couple having a picnic in nature, playing along with their pet Young smiling couple having a picnic in nature, playing along with their petGetty Images  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Jan 25, 2017 7:37 PM UTC [Breaking up is hard to do](http://time.com/4358792/woman-age-married-how-long/), even without having to divvy up your shared earthly possessions, but a new amendment to Alaska’s divorce statuses set in motion last week is changing the way that divorcing couples will be able to lay claim to their pets, [shifting animal friends to more of a family law context than a property law one](http://time.com/money/4556235/estate-planning-leave-money-pet/). Alaska now requires courts to take “into consideration the well-being of the animal,” according to [_The Washington Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/01/24/in-a-first-alaska-divorce-courts-will-now-treat-pets-more-like-children/?utm%5Fterm=.95878d3cdb7f), and gives judges the power to assign joint custody of pets, a move that the Animal Legal Defense Fund called “groundbreaking and unique” [in a blog post on their site](http://aldf.org/blog/alaska-legislature-becomes-first-to-require-consideration-of-animals-interests-in-custody-cases/). The [Alaskan bill](http://www.ktva.com/legislature-passes-bill-providing-new-protections-for-pets-in-alaska-928/) also gives courts the option to include pets in domestic violence protective orders and mandates that pet owners will need to pay for the cost of sheltering animals seized in cruelty or neglect cases. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/"},"headline":"These Divorce Courts Will Now Treat Pets Like Children","datePublished":"2017-01-25T19:37:49.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T08:02:53.570Z","description":"A new way to consider \"who gets the dog?\"","url":"https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/","keywords":["Newsfeed","Alaska","Entertainment","animals","Divorce","Humor","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58b1a111147e4531/6988b722cf40a83274c462fa/alaska-divorce-court-pets-kids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Cady Lang","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/cady-lang/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt58b1a111147e4531/6988b722cf40a83274c462fa/alaska-divorce-court-pets-kids.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"On a picnic with my family","caption":"On a picnic with my family","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/","name":"These Divorce Courts Will Now Treat Pets Like Children"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Here's What We Pay For Our Animal Friends","description":"MONEY VIDEO","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VlBhFT90/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-10-25T19:44:42.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VlBhFT90.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/","duration":"PT1M20S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4648514/pets-divorce-law/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```