{"id":1459,"date":"2025-10-04T18:34:36","date_gmt":"2025-10-04T18:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/?p=1459"},"modified":"2025-10-09T17:49:24","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T17:49:24","slug":"custody-pets-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/blog\/custody-pets-divorce\/","title":{"rendered":"Legal luxury or social necessity?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A monkey, a client and a rod<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Marco never had a problem travelling with his monkey Amedio, (Amadeo if it hadn't been for the translation error). We Xennials grew up watching the little monkey on television accompanying his little owner everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That must have been the memory of the woman who recently entered a Malaga bar with her pygmy titi on her shoulder, like a pirate of the Caribbean. What the exotic lady did not count on was that the owner of the establishment would invite her to leave the establishment: \u201c<em>Here, waiters serve ca\u00f1as, not bananas.<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the age of animal welfare, Google was the microphone for the outraged \u201cmama ape\u201d, and the networks did the rest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">From anecdote to law<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the world has changed a lot. What used to be a simple cartoon gag or a funny anecdote in a bar, today connects with a regulatory framework that in Spain has become very serious: the <strong>Law 7\/2023 on the protection of animal rights and animal welfare<\/strong>, and the <strong>Law 17\/2021 on the legal status of animals<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Until this reform, animals were considered as things, but the new regulatory framework <strong>recognises them as \u201csentient beings\u201d.\u201d<\/strong>, In other words, they are no longer objects, but subjects of rights.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-medium\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" src=\"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lujo-legal-necesidad-social-300x181.jpg\" alt=\"Legal luxury or social necessity?\" class=\"wp-image-1461\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lujo-legal-necesidad-social-300x181.jpg 300w, https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lujo-legal-necesidad-social-768x464.jpg 768w, https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lujo-legal-necesidad-social.jpg 1009w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Pets, divorce and the courts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And this is having a special relevance in Family Law. In addition to the usual measures that have to be taken in annulment, separation or divorce proceedings, the new <strong>Article 94a of the Civil Code provides that the judicial authority shall entrust the care of animals to one or both spouses.<\/strong>. And in the end, we are seeing how the custody of animals is handled as if it were that of another child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Recently, I defended a very interesting and novel divorce in which, precisely for that reason, the only reason it ended up in court, there were no minors (so it could have been dissolved notarially), but both wanted custody of the dog.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The peculiarity of this case is that the opposing party did not file its defence within the time limit and appeared directly at the hearing, thus undermining its defence possibilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Can a judge decide without being asked to do so?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And this is where a lawyer's eyes start to glaze over: can the judge grant something other than what has been requested, are measures relating to pets a necessary right or a justice begged for? In other words, can he regulate the animal's interests if no one has asked him to do so?.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The recent Supreme Court ruling, STS 4146 of 2024, 17 July, addresses this issue, in an interesting analysis of the different regulation of this specific matter, with other issues considered to be of public order (such as child maintenance).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those of us who work in the legal field know that everything will work out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A necessary reflection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But I still wonder, is animal custody in divorce a necessary right or a legal luxury?<br>Does it really protect the animal's interest or does it only reflect the emotional projection of the owners?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As my grandmother would say: \u201c<em>bigger towers have fallen...<\/em>\u201c<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A monkey, a client and a cane Marco has never had a problem travelling with his...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":5,"label":"Blog"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/lujo-legal-necesidad-social.jpg",1009,609,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Isabel Garre P\u00e9rez","author_link":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/author\/tino\/"},"comment_info":2,"category_info":[{"term_id":5,"name":"Blog","slug":"blog","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"Blog de Isabel Garre Abogada","parent":0,"count":1,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":5,"category_count":1,"category_description":"Blog de Isabel Garre Abogada","cat_name":"Blog","category_nicename":"blog","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1740,"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions\/1740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/isabelgarreabogados.es\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}