Pet Trust? Or Custody Battle?

Finally: no more scoffing at the idea of setting up a trust to care for a loving pet after you’re gone.

Those of us who consider our pets as our “children,” need to make specific arrangements for their care after we are gone.

And stipulate exactly how the care is to be carried out.

Stipulations in the will or estate plan are essential.

Read this story sent to me via ABA ejournal.

Canine Case Is Doggone Tough

Tennessee lawyer is guardian to pet caught in a custody battle

By Stephanie Francis Ward

You could say counseling the parties in a particularly contentious Tennessee probate dispute is like herding cats—except their disagreement involves a dog: a 13-year-old golden retriever named Alex, to be exact, who has his own lawyer.

Alex’s owner, Ronald W. Callan Jr., committed suicide on New Year’s Day. The man’s divorced parents, Esther Snow Gnall and Ronald W. Callan Sr., both wanted custody of the dog and what they think is a fair share of their son’s estate, valued at more than $2 million. Callan Sr., the administrator of his son’s estate, would not let his ex-wife see the dog. So her lawyer asked the court to appoint a guardian ad litem for the dog to determine its best interest. In March, Paul Royal, of Memphis, Tenn., was lucky enough to get the nod.

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Belcher, a partner at McGuireWoods, says clients don’t like to consider their pets as property, even though they are under the law. Pets weren’t recognized as valid trusts in most jurisdictions until the advent of the Uniform Trust Code in 2000, he says.

“I have not seen an increase in pet trusts since then,” he says.

But Belcher has handled pet care requests for clients. One couple in their 60s with no children but three cats asked that he create a trust to be administered by a friend. They wanted a stipulation that the cats not have tattoos on their lips.

“And I said, ‘Who would do that?’ ” Belcher recalls. “Well, say I’m the trustee and paid to handle the cats—how do you know you’ve got the same cat you started with?”

His clients, who lived on the East Coast, also directed that in the event of their deaths, the cats would be sent to live at a California cat hotel. Their will left specific shipping instructions.

The couple actually outlived their pets, Belcher says, but such a will shows how much people care about their pets.

“Most people treat their animals like children, and the court treats them like toasters,” says Kristina A. Hancock, who chairs the animal law committee of the ABA’s Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section. Hancock, senior counsel with Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps in Del Mar, Calif., applauds the court’s ruling for Alex the dog.

“Whenever we see an animal treated better than a toaster, we think that’s progress,” Hancock says.

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