So Alex? Mmm-hmm. I got a question for you. Okay. Lets say you're dating a lady--alright--for
a little while, things are going good--okay--and then she's like Alex? Lets get a dog together.
Ohhhh. What would you think? I don't know about that. Uh-oh.
So Alex Farnham host of Animalist news thanks so much for coming on the show. Thanks for
having me. I wanted you to come on the show to talk about a not so happy subject: Pet
custody after the breakup. Right. You know the scenario, like a guy and a girl or a girl
and girl okay some people meet and they fall in love--mm-hmm-and then they get a dog and
then they fall out of love and then who gets the dog? I don't want to get too personal
but lets get personal. Have you ever owned a pet with a significant other? No. Since
you asked you know, since you wanted to know about me--ooh have you owned a pet with a
significant other? Thank you for asking Alex. Well my boyfriend and I do have a dog but
my boyfriend owned the dog for like ten years before I even came around. If something were
to happen to us the dog obviously will-- go to you--will go, Buddy will go with Professor
Boyfriend that's just the way--Goodbye Buddy--Au revoir Buddy. But it would be hard though.
I mean thinking about it, I, I have grown really attached to this dog and if we were
to breakup that would be an actual loss for me. What do you think might be some ground
rules for this whole pet custody? If you're going to get a pet with somebody, you have
to ask about it right away. Even though it's kind of weird. You kind of need like the pet
prenup, right? Right, definitely. And it's like, I wonder if people do this when they're
not living with each other. Don't tell Professor Boyfriend but actually have dated a couple
of guys who had shared dog custody--really?--with their exes. What? Which is something that
I saw suggested on Cesar Milan, aka the Dog Whisperer's--site. He was like there are one
of three things you can do, you can have a joint custody like that where you just like
trade the dog off back and forth or you can have sole custody or you can have sole custody
with visitation. Wow. This pet custody thing is such a big deal not just with dating relationships
but with marriages too that divorce lawyers are saying that pets are now becoming a major
like issue in divorce arbitration. In fact, I read in American Dog Magazine, which I'm
sure you subscribe to--Yes, duh--there's a lawyer who said you can get something called
a writ of replevin, essentially that you take out against someone who needs to give you
something of yours back and that's like the legal route that you can take to getting your
dog back from an ex who doesn't want to give you the dog. Hmm. Maybe they can invent something
that they can put like on the pet's head that, that will let you know the owner's know what
the pet wants. That is something that the Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan, pointed out too
is that you want to be careful and make sure that it's not a stressful transition for the
dog if you, it has to move or has to go with someone who might not be the best pet care
taker. Or you know you could do the classic you know, just put it in the middle of both
of the owners and just be like come on Fluffy, come on Fluffy--ooh--come with me Fluffy,
no come her Fluffy--Come on--and then it goes and your like ah, you had bacon in your pocket.
You're right that would be easy to cheat. Apparently the pet custody issue doesn't get
any easier until we have pet brain scan technology to let us know what the dog wants, or cat
but I feel like it doesn't happen with cats too much. A cat would be like I'm just going
to hang out here. Yeah. Y'all do what you want to do. We'll figure it out. Come on Apple.
Come on Apple. Apple? Apple. Apple? Is that your cat's name? I--no, no, you know like
iCat, iDog, then, the little, you just plug it into your dog, the dog will wear it and
then it will let you know who uh, where the dog wants, what the dog wants. You are an
inventor. [Laughter]. Well if there are any inventors watching, they've got their work
cut out for them. Zuckerberg. Yeah--what? Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg. Oh I thought
you said sell your bird. Sell your bird and if we sell enough birds then we'll have enough
money to make this pet scan thing. Well Alex, thank you so much for coming on the show and
where can people find you talk about animals? Uh just go to youtube.com/animalist or animalist.com.
That's right and you should also head over to animalist because I came on the show to
talk about 'Are pets the new children?' which is kind of the precursor to this whole pet
custody issue. Get informed, go to animlist news, check out Alex's stuff and don't forget
to subscribe.