When married couples divorce in New York, their rights and obligations are determined pursuant to the Domestic Relations Law. This set of statutes, and the accompanying case law, deals with all aspects of the couple's divorce, including custody of their children, financial support to be paid between the parties, and distribution of property.

Previously, under New York Law, pets were treated as personal property, the same as cars and furniture. In a 2002 New York County Supreme Court case, C.R.S. v. T.K.S., 192 Misc.2d 547, 746 N.Y.S.2d 568 [Sup. Ct., N.Y. County 2002], the court determined the possession of a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador in the context of equitable distribution. The court proceeded with a strict property analysis and stated that "a dog is chattel" and "a credit for any proven value of the dog could be made" in the context of a final distributive award.

While this seemed fundamentally unfair, as pets surely cannot be equated to cars or couches, the law did not provide for an alternative way of handling the "division" of pets. There was nothing the court could point to in the laws surrounding custody or equitable distribution that would allow for a more reasonable analysis: likening pets more closely to children than property.