97
denied. During a court hearing, Marolla
said the “final straw” for her came when
she went to pick up the dogs from Giar-
russo and discovered that Marox was
missing. During a nearly two-hour search
through the neighborhood, Marolla testi-
fied, she was so distraught that she was
“puking on the side of the road.”
“It was like a someone-died feeling,”
she tells TIME. When they found Marox—
safe in the house but shut inside a closet —
Marolla canceled Giarrusso’s visitation
rights, prompting the
court dispute.
“I knew it would
be an uphill battle,”
Marolla says of her
quest for full custody.
But the 54-year-old
social worker says
she only wanted to
protect her pets.
“I just want these
dogs to be healthy
and happy until the
day they leave this
planet,” she says.
In Kentucky, a
woman’s attachment
to her cats, Beanie
and Kacey, landed
her behind bars. Lynn
Goldstein was jailed
for 30 days in 2001
after she repeatedly refused a judge’s
order to give her ex- husband custody of
the cats. She was caught hiding the felines
at a friend’s office. “I would walk through
hell and fire for those animals,” said Gold-
stein, who eventually was forced to let her
ex-husband take the cats.
In 2017, Alaska became the first state
to require judges in divorce cases to
consider the pet’s well-being, similar
to a standard applied in child- custody
cases. The provisions, which the Animal
Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) called
“groundbreaking and unique,” allow
joint owner ship of a pet and the inclu-
sion of pets in domestic- violence pro-
tection orders. The bill was the brain-
child of the late state representative
Max Gruenberg, who as a family lawyer
had once handled a custody case involv-
ing a sled-dog team. It inspired Illinois
to follow suit in 2018 and California in
January 2019.
Animal advocates point to science,
among other things, in arguing that pets
are more than mere property. We now
understand that animals have awareness
and, depending on the species, emotions
and intuitiveness. Dogs understand us
and, in their own way, love us—though
researchers warn that there is often bias
in the way we interpret their behavior; the
dog who appears to be offering comfort
with a nuzzle may instead be seeking
comfort. Other animal behavior is lesswhich fears legal repercussions for vet-
erinary workers if pets are given ele-
vated status in divorce court. “While
the AVMA and its members clearly love
pets and recognize their importance to
their owners, we also believe that their
current legal classification as property
is appropriate,” AVMA spokesperson
Michael San Filippo said in a statement.
The American Kennel Club, which reg-
isters purebreds, and Michael Forte, chief
judge of the Rhode Island family court,
also oppose Lima’s
bill— currently tabled
for further study—
arguing that the state
is already capable of
fairly adjudicating
pet issues.
It wasn’t until 2014
that all 50 states had
felony laws against
animal cruelty. On
Nov. 25, 2019, Presi-
dent Donald Trump
signed a bipartisan
bill that makes animal
cruelty a federal crime.
Kitty Block, presi-
dent and CEO of the
Humane Society of the
United States, said the
passage “marks a new
era in the codification
of kindness to animals within federal law.”
At least 34 states let judges include pets
in domestic- violence protection orders.
Animal lovers say a change in divorce
law can’t be far behind.
When Giarrusso and Marolla married
in 1993, neither expected their union to
crumble. They also had no idea the fight
for their pets would be the most painful
part of their divorce. “Boy, was I in for a
rude awakening,” Giarrusso says. By the
time the legal dispute was over, Marolla
had paid $38,000 in legal fees. “I spent
my whole savings,” she says, her voice
trembling. “It’s gone.” But she finds
comfort in her dogs five days a week,
and Marolla and Giarrusso agree on at
least one thing: courts and naysayers
should acknowledge the pain couples
endure when neither can bear to part
with their pets.
“If you had to go through this,”
Giarrusso says, “you’d probably have a
change of heart.” □ambiguous. Elephants appear unmistak-
ably to mourn their dead—even caress-
ing their bones. Crows, jays and other
corvids fashion tools from paper clips to
fetch food. Octopuses, with their central
nervous systems and brains distrib-
uted across eight limbs, have managed
cunning escapes from their tanks.
“Our views toward animals, the inher-
ent value that they have and all of the
ways they are distinct from other forms
of property—I think people are becoming
more aware of that,” says Cristina Stella,
a senior staff attorney at the ALDF.
But passage of new animal-rights
laws doesn’t come easily, and opposition
has come from unexpected sources. In
Rhode Island, opponents of Lima’s pro-
posed legislation include the AVMA,^
Giarrusso gets to spend Tuesdays
and Wednesdays each week with
Marox, left, and Winnie