In a divorce, pets are considered property and treated as such by courts in this state and others. That doesn't stop people from loving them like family and, at times, fighting over an animal's "custody" as bitterly as they would over children.

	Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette Click illustration for larger version. Related coverage NextSteps: Pets are survivors, too, and require planning

In one recent local example, Ritchie Scaife attempted to make off with Beau, the dog of her estranged husband, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review publisher Richard Mellon Scaife. According to police, she saw the yellow Labrador being walked outside his Shadyside home and tried to wrest the animal away, attacking Mr. Scaife's maid, secretary and security guard in the process. The dog, she said, had been taken from her residence the day before.

Pet custody battles -- physical or legal -- haven't exactly reached epidemic proportions, but some cases across the country demonstrate the lengths to which former partners go to keep the dog or cat with them or away from their ex.

Jefferson County, Texas, 2001 -- Lynn Goldstein is sentenced to 30 days in jail for refusing several orders from a judge to turn over the two cats her ex was awarded in their divorce.

San Diego County, Calif., 2000 -- Dr. Stanley and Linda Perkins wage a two-year battle over their dog, Gigi. She racks up $146,000 in fees, including a "canine bonding" study by an animal behaviorist and a video about Gigi titled "A Day in the Life." The dog reportedly takes up half of the three-day divorce trial. Mrs. Perkins prevails.

Dallas, Texas, 2000 -- Karen Bennett and Ed Guice fight over their Chihuahua, Missy, spending almost $16,000 in lawyer fees. At one point, he "dognaps" the animal for nine days. She gets custody and he gets visitation, including Friday overnights.

Montgomery County, Md., 1999 -- Two years after their divorce, Jennifer Kidwell and Ethan Assal are back in court fighting over Sable, a 9-year-old keeshond. A circuit judge threatens to sell the animal and split the proceeds between them if the two can't agree on visitation. The wife had spent $20,000 during the original proceedings to keep possession of the dog.

Cases like these may say as much about the parties' enmity toward each other as they do about their affection for the animals. Gary Gentile, a Downtown family law attorney, acknowledged that some divorces are so contentious, "I wouldn't be surprised if one argued over the tarantula if they thought the other one wanted it."

Yet there's no denying that many people harbor deep and sincere love for their pets.

Americans currently have about 74 million pet dogs in 43.5 million households, and 90.5 million cats in 37.7 million households, according a survey by the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association.

Those numbers indicate not just the popularity of pets, but also the bond that exists between animals and humans, said Stephanie Shain, outreach director of the Humane Society of the United States. The numbers also show a tremendous potential for displacement, since about half of all marriages end in divorce.

When a household breaks up, three things can happen: The animal loses its home completely and winds up in a shelter or a new home; people work through the issue of who keeps the pet, or a custody battle ensues.

"It's tragic when pets lose their home just because the people can't live together anymore," she said. "A commitment was made to provide that animal a safe home for its lifetime."

As for the animals' emotional reaction to a family split, she said: "The animal may go through a period of looking for the absent person and being sad they're not there, but most can adjust."

Annette Sexton, a dog trainer with the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society, says she sometimes gets calls about troubling pet behavior from people who don't realize their breakup is causing the problem.

"There is so much tension in the house, feelings of loss, depression and anxiety, or betrayal and anger, that it can affect a closely bonded animal's behavior," she said.

Ms. Shain said that in cases where a pair of pets is tightly bonded to one another, "People need to put the animals' best interest ahead of their own anger and frustration. Animals are not salt and pepper shakers to be divided."

Actually, in most places the law doesn't see pets as much different from any other property that is divided on the basis of equitable distribution. Even when judges recognize that pets have a special place in a family's life, the law may not support that recognition.

"Every state will deal with the distribution of the pet as part of marital assets, but not many will deal with shared custody," said Albert Momjian, a Philadelphia family law attorney and chair of the state bar association's Animal Law Committee.

In Pennsylvania, the same courts that will enforce an agreement to share a boat or season tickets to the ball park will not enforce a similar agreement regarding an animal.

"Pennsylvania says you can agree on shared possession of a pet, but we're not going to enforce it," Mr. Momjian said.

He has been trying to get the state Legislature to adopt language similar to New Jersey's, which allows courts to enforce shared custody for dogs and cats.

"If people can share a piece of vacation real estate at the shore, they can share a pet," he said. "It's not that complicated."

The guiding precedent for pet custody in Pennsylvania is known as "the Barney rule." It arose from a 2002 case, DeSanctis v. Pritchard, in which a couple had agreed in their divorce settlement to share possession of Barney, their golden retriever-Labrador mix. When the ex-wife remarried and moved away, Anthony DeSanctis went to court to enforce the agreement, arguing that the dog should be treated similarly to a child. He lost.

"The judge said the dog was property, so the agreement was 'analogous in law to a visitation schedule for a table or lamp,' " said Marleen Ashton, a hearing officer in Allegheny County Family Court. She also serves as president of the board of Animal Friends, a no-kill shelter in the North Hills. Each year, she gives a lecture on pet custody for the Pennsylvania Bar Institute Association.

"You should hear the audience when they hear that 'table or lamp' comment," said Ms. Ashton. "They don't like that.

"In some other states, they look at what the parties have agreed to and also consider the animals as sentient beings who show happiness, sadness and pain, so they need to be looked at as more than property," said Ms. Ashton.

That's exactly what some judges are trying to avoid.

"Courts are overwhelmed with the supervision of custody, visitation and support ... of children," wrote a judge in Florida, declining to add animals to the court's burden.

But Mr. Momjian doesn't think that treating animals with what he calls "a little more respect" will lead to an inundation of pet custody cases.

"Most people make their agreements and stick to them," he said. "You'd think the courts would want to reward them for doing the responsible thing by making the agreement enforceable."

Ms. Ashton has noticed more awareness among couples that pets could become an issue.

"Ten years ago it didn't happen much, but now people are addressing their pets in their prenuptial and postnuptial agreements," she said. "But lawyers have to caution them that it's not binding in court."

Mary Sue Ramsden, a Downtown family law attorney, said pets often go to the parent who has primary custody of the children, and in some cases the pet goes back and forth with the children from mom's house to dad's. Those arrangements, she emphasized, are strictly voluntary.

"I had a case where the kids took the dog to visit dad and dad refused to return the dog. We had to go to a court hearing to get the dog returned, which happened because it was viewed as mom's property."

When a family has more than one dog or cat, she said, it's not unusual to split them.

"That's probably the most common scenario. I've seen it even when the pets are very attached to each other, and I'd be surprised if the court permitted such a test [of the pets' attachment to each other] in Pennsylvania."

The devotion of people to their pets was never more on view than during Hurricane Katrina, when some refused to evacuate without their beloved animals, and others died trying to save them. In response, Congress is drafting bills that would require states to draw up plans to shelter animals or risk losing federal disaster funding.

But when it comes to pets and divorce, many believe the law still has a long way to go.