Q. My wife and I never had children. But we have pets. We are both veterinarians. Our dogs and cats are our children. We have decided to divorce but cannot agree on how to share our pets. The three dogs probably should stay together although the four cats can probably get split up. She wants to keep them all, but I don’t see how that is fair. I had two of the cats before we got married and one of the dogs belonged to my late mother and is very attached to all of the cats.

I understand Massachusetts does not look at animals as children they way my wife and I consider them. Can you help me understand how they will be treated in a divorce process and if there are any other options?

A. You are correct that Massachusetts still considers pets to be property. Massachusetts also considers all property part of the marital estate regardless how you came to own it.

You should take steps to gather the necessary information to prove ownership if you believe this will go to court. Get copies of town licenses to prove whose name is on the licenses for the pets. Get copies of any pet insurance policies or breeder contracts or adoption paperwork to prove ownership. Get copies of registration documents and proof of payment for veterinary services. While it is not the only factor to prove “ownership,” the name of the person on the title of these documents likely has a leg up if this is approached from a property perspective.

You do have another avenue for relief here. You can sign a divorce agreement to deal with everything else.  Then, you can agree to resolve the pet issues through binding arbitration. In arbitration, you can make the rules instructing the arbitrator on how you want the arbitration to work – agreeing to deadlines, the kinds of evidence to be produced, etc.  You could also agree that you are each waiving your rights to appeal.

You can ask the arbitrator to treat the pet issue with more sensitivity than a property dispute and even ask that they consider awarding some sort of sharing situation where if one of you travels the other gets the pets or even some regularly scheduled time where the pets will spend time with each of you in exchange for some contribution toward their expenses.

Email questions to whickey@brickjones.com