Traditionally when couples divorce they have a bitter spat over who gets custody of the kids, what access they have, and who gets the possessions such as cars, houses and jewellery. However in South Africa right now arguments over who gets the dog are more common. Also other pets as well, not just dogs, but I thought I’d lead with a dog.

After the recent judgement in the UK where a man had to pay his ex-wife £50,000 per year to keep her horses, legal experts say that pet maintenance in South Africa is very common.

Billy Gundelfinger, a divorce lawyer in Johannesburg, says that disagreements over pets were very common in South Africa:

I’ve had cases where that was the straw that broke the camel’s back, where they’ve settled the residency of the children, they’ve settled the finances, the antiques and the paintings, the cars and the holiday homes, and then they fight over the pet — and one of them says the whole deal is off, we’re going to court.

He gave one example of how a divorce settlement worth millions disintegrated because neither the husband nor the wife could agree on who took custody of the Staffordshire terrier.

They both wanted the Staffie … we started the trial and then, in the tea break, I persuaded my client that this was absurd.

Eventually the couple agreed on shared custody whereby they both took the dog on alternate months.

Clive Bellmore