| What? A "Pet trust"? Pets as our "children"? We are | | | | rights, privileges and actions that have traditionally been |
| supposed to consider including our pet animals - dogs, | | | | reserved for and directed towards protecting and |
| cats, birds, etc - as "family members" and "loved ones" | | | | caring for human children, are, today, now used to |
| who should be covered in our testamentary trust or | | | | protect and care for pets, as well. In other words, |
| will and our estate planning? Aren't these just mere | | | | gradually but surely, there is now in the American |
| "animals"? | | | | society a new and increasingly significant kind of |
| Well, not quite so any more these days! | | | | "family members" and "children." It's called the |
| Americans own a huge number of pets, including about | | | | NON-human or pet animal family members and |
| 68 million dogs and 73 million cats, according to a 2000 | | | | children! |
| estimate by the American Pet Products | | | | And that brings us to this major question: how has the |
| Manufacturers Association. What is even particularly | | | | American law evolved in response to this developing |
| fundamental, however, from the sociological standpoint | | | | new sociological reality in the American society? In |
| and the transformation of the American society, is this: | | | | terms of providing our new-found pet animal "infant |
| That for a great many Americans, and a growing | | | | children" the essential legal rights, care and protections |
| number of them, their home pets are now considered | | | | as would be fitting for our human "infant children"? |
| a bona fide "member of the family," and not just | | | | Suffice it simply to say, that a new specialized area of |
| "animals" any more. | | | | law has developed in the American jurisprudence |
| An October 1999 survey by the USA Today | | | | pertaining to this issue. One significant aspect of it is |
| newspaper, for example, found that more than 66% of | | | | what is known as the "pet trust" law. In point of fact, |
| American pet owners said they consider their pets "a | | | | the American pet owners have for centuries |
| member of the family." In a more recent survey by the | | | | expressed concerns and interest in establishing an |
| American Animal Hospital Association, a whopping | | | | estate plan for their animals in the same manner as |
| 84% of American pet owners were reported to think | | | | people plan for their spouses and children, but that |
| of their animal companions as being their kids. | | | | general impulse had for so long been resisted by the |
| In deed, a more telling indices of the dramatic evolution | | | | State legislatures and the Courts based on one legal |
| of the pet from mere 'animals' towards the highly | | | | rationale or the other. However, beginning in the 1990s, |
| exulted status of a 'family member' in the American | | | | under the guidelines established by the National |
| society, is the general attitude of the pet owners | | | | Conference of Commissioners of Uniform State Laws, |
| towards their pets and simply the way they treat, | | | | State legislatures (at least 40 of them as of 2006) and |
| regard and relate with their pets. For example, | | | | the courts have adopted laws which address precisely |
| according to surveys, some 79% of pet owners allow | | | | those concerns and now permit the creation of trusts |
| their pets to sleep in their beds with them, while 3% of | | | | specifically for the custody and care of designated |
| them even count pets in the number of IRS | | | | pets and their offspring in times of the incapacity or |
| withholdings they claim for tax purposes. The evidence | | | | death of their owner. |
| is simply astounding: 50% of American pet owners talk | | | | Basically, with a legally valid 'pet trust,' you (the pet |
| "baby talk" to their pets; 37% of them carry a picture | | | | owner) can make specific provisions as to the care of |
| of their pets in their wallets; 27% of them include their | | | | your pets in the event of your disability or death, and |
| pets in their testamentary trusts or wills; while 8% buy | | | | provide for a reliable caretaker and funding |
| health insurance for their pets. There's more. | | | | arrangement for the pet all of which will be legally |
| Nowadays, the "custody fights" over pets among | | | | enforceable by the courts. Thus, with the "pet trust," a |
| divorcing couples who own pets, are among the most | | | | relatively recent estate planning tool applicable for pet |
| hotly contested issues in divorce proceedings; pet | | | | animals, you can assure that in the event of any such |
| owners now throw lavish wedding and birthday parties | | | | emergency, your pets will not likely wind up in the |
| for dogs, cats, and other pet animals, more adults | | | | shelter or pound somewhere awaiting euthanasia, but |
| today have pets than children, and so on and on. | | | | will be taken into a safe home and will be properly |
| Summed up simply, just about all those kinds of special | | | | cared for by a responsible, caring caretaker. |