КУЋНИ ЉУБИМЦИ И РАЗВОД БРАКА
PETS AND DIVORCE

Summary/Abstract: Divorce is a relatively frequent phenomenon, the consequences of which affect not only spouses but also their offspring, other family members, wider social community, as well as pets owned by the divorced couple. The Family Act of the Republic of Serbia comprises numerous substantive and procedural law provisions on a dissolution of marriage and its consequences, but it is silent on the legal implications for pets in the event the divorced spouses disagree on who will take care of them once the marriage has been terminated. Should a pet be treated as a movable property during divorce, which has been a predominant stand in Serbian judicial practice for decades, or should it be regarded as a sentient living being that, like a human being, can feel pain, suffering, fear, stress, and panic, which is explicitly stipulated in the Animal Welfare Act? In the conducted research, the author has sought an answer to the posed question by drawing on the comparative law, legal dogmatics, normative law, and legal history methods. In light of theoretical concepts, normative solutions and judicial practice in French, Russian, Spanish and American laws, the paper sheds light on the contemporary trends regarding the legal fate of pets after the divorce of their owners. The purpose of the research is two-fold. On the one hand, the aim is to propose adequate legal solutions to the Serbian legislator that should make the divorce as painless as possible for the spouses themselves, but also for their pets. On the other hand, the proposed legal mechanism should reduce the number of abandoned pets resulting from the termination of marriage through divorce.

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