Court: Dogs Are Not Children Divorced Couple Wants Joint Custody Of Dog Posted: 11:58 a.m. EDT July 9, 2002 HARRISBURG, Pa. -- No matter how much some people treat their pets like children, a state appeals court said the law doesn't allow for a divorced couple to have joint custody of a dog. With the way some people treat their pets like children, should divorced couples be granted joint custody of a pet? Yes, people think of pets as children. No, they are animals, not children. No custody agreement is necessary. I have never had pets and don't understand how people can treat their animals as children. Anthony DeSanctis worked out an agreement with Lynda Hurley Pritchard when they divorced in 2000 that dealt mostly with the future of Barney, a dog Pritchard had gotten from an animal shelter two months before the couple separated in 1996. The agreement said the dog was Pritchard's, but DeSanctis could visit him. In March 2000, though, Pritchard moved from Chester County to Bucks County and no longer made Barney available for DeSanctis to visit. In a decision released Friday, the Pennsylvania Superior Court agreed with the Chester County Court that the law cannot treat the dog as if he were a child.
