If you pay for someone’s pets vet bills, can you legally try to take custody of the animals?

////If you pay for someone’s pets vet bills, can you legally try to take custody of the animals?

Question

My boyfriend has a retired service dog and a kitten that we got together but was meant for him. I have paid vet bills for both the pets, but they are under my boyfriend's name. If we were to part ways, could I fight for custody of both of them?

Answer

You can fight for custody but based on the information in your email you will likely lose. Ideally, people who “share” an animal would enter into a written pet custody agreement which addresses who gets the animal if the people go their separate ways.

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By |2019-06-10T15:42:18-04:00June 10th, 2019|